The Mortal's Guardian: Michael's Story
by DScribbleF
Summary: Michael is a hardworking Celestrian, a guardian of the mortal race, with a sense of humor. When a catastrophe strikes his home and launches him into the village he is supposed to protect, he finds an adventure that no one could have ever foreseen with a strange group of friends. He's thrilled.
1. Prologue: The Journey Begins

**Hello everyone, and welcome to the first chapter of my first story ever on FanFiction. I don't have much to say now, so I'll just let you guys jump right into the story.**

**Disclaimer:**

**Dragon Quest IX is the rightful property of Square Enix and I own nothing in this story except my original characters.**

_Prologue: The Journey Begins_

"_Hello? Is anyone there? If you're there, say something. Show yourself."_

"Thus do the voices of mortals plead, ever hopeful for proof of our existence…" my teacher explained to me, his apprentice. "For how long now have we watched over their realm…? For how long have we Celestrians existed…?"

Yeah, we were Celestrians: sacred creatures whose duty was to protect the mortals who lived in the Protectorate. And we were immortal. Are you envious? We were literally watching _over_ the peaceful village of Angel Falls as we were flying thirty feet in the air with our angelic wings. Yep, we have wings. I bet you're envious now. My teacher was a middle-aged-looking man with a perfectly bald head named Aquila. Me? I'm, Michael. I have spiky green hair and bright blue eyes. Oh, and we both were wearing funny looking clothing and had halos over our heads.

Having finished looking over the village, Aquila turned back to me and said, "You have come far, Michael. I must confess to having my doubts when you became Guardian of the village in my stead, but its inhabitants' continued peace and safety is proof of your devotion. When Apus Major came and told me 'Aquila, take Michael as your apprentice,' I never imagined I would see you become so strong. You are indeed worthy of your title, Michael, Guardian of Angel Falls."

Now, Aquila is not a man known for giving compliments, so I was slightly shocked to receive such a large compliment from him. All I could do was reply "Th-thank you, Master."

"You're welcome. You have more than ear…" Then something caught his attention. "Oh! Look over there Michael." In the distance there were two people walking along the trail towards town. I immediately recognized the young woman with purple hair as Erinn the local innkeeper and the old man as her grandfather Flinn.

"Hahh…" Flinn said, "hahh…don't ever get old, my dear Erinn. You don't ever want to get old."

Erinn turned towards her grandfather with a smile large enough that I could see it way over where I was. "Oh, Grandpa," she said. "It's not much further now. I'm sure you'll make it just fine."

As this exchange between them took place, a Cruelcumber and two Slimes sneakily crawled out of a bush and hid behind a rock near the trail, waiting to ambush the two travelers.

"These wicked creatures must not be allowed to ambush innocent members of your village, Michael," said Aquila. "Come, Guardian of Angel Falls, it is time to fulfil our duty as Celestrians!" I nodded in agreement and quickly followed Aquila, who had swooped down and challenged the monsters to battle.

Having heard us approach, the monsters turned around and prepared to attack us instead. I always wondered why monsters and animals could always see Celestrians, but I stomached my curiosity as we drew our swords.

The battle took no time at all. Aquila easily took out the Cruelcumber while I easily took out both Slimes with my blade.

As we finished fighting, I noticed that Erinn and her grandfather had stopped by the rock. Erinn cheerily exclaimed, "Look, Grandpa. There's Angel Falls up ahead"

Panting, her grandfather sighed, "Aaah… I honestly believed I'd never set my tired old eyes in the place again, but here we are at last. Home sweet home."

Erinn, still smiling, put her hands on her hips and replied "Oh, don't be so melodramatic, Grandpa! The village Guardian will have been watching over us all the way. Nothing could ever have happened to us!"

'_Damn straight!_' I thought to myself.

She then put her hands together and bowed her head, "Benevolent Michael, thank you for protecting us on our journey." Once she finished, she continued with her grandfather the rest of the way to the village, leaving behind a beautiful blue crystal that shone with bright light. I quickly went and collected it.

"Behold, Michael," announced Aquila. "Benevolessence. The crystallization of the mortals' gratitude towards us for protecting them. As Celestrians, our cardinal duty is to offer up this sacred substance to mighty Yggdrasil, the Great World Tree_. _Come, Michael, let us return to the Observatory so that you may make your offering."

I nodded and we flew directly up into the clear sky until we were able to see the ancient floating tower that we all call home rapidly approaching. At the very top of the beautiful structure was the even more beautiful Yggdrasil Herself, a sight which made my heart soar.

We entered through a portal on the bottom floor and gently landed in the large chamber. Aquila turned to me and said, "The first task a Guardian must perform upon returning from the Protectorate is to report to Apus Major. As unchanging as the North Star, you will find him in the Great Hall." He turned away.

"Will you not come with me, Master?" I asked.

Turning back, he answered, "Nay. I have other matters that I must attend to. You must excuse me." As he once again turned away and left, I noticed that he was heading in the direction of the grave of his old Master, Corvus, who had disappeared ages ago in the Protectorate. Remember, we are immortal, so we are all older than we look.

I quickly ran up too many staircases and reached the Great Hall, where, as always, Apus Major stood upon his daïs ahead of me. "Good day, sir," I greeted, kneeling before the leader of all Celestrians.

"Well met, Michael, apprentice of Aquila," replied the extremely ancient being. "Welcome back. I trust your absence has not been so lengthy that you forget your old Master, Apus Major!"

Smiling, I answered, "Of course not. How could I forget one such as yourself?"

Laughing, Apus Major continued, "Indeed. Also, you have my congratulations on successfully completing your first task as a Guardian, Michael." I happily accepted his praise, which flowed much easier from him as it did from Aquila. "You have performed your duties well thus far," he continued, "albeit under Aquila's watchful gaze. However, the time has come for you to spread you own wings." I struggled not to roll my eyes after he had said that. "What say you? Are you ready to undertake your duties alone?"

Feeling rather proud of myself, I quickly answered "Yes, sir!"

This caused Apus Major to laugh again. "Ho ho ho! I see you are a confident apprentice. That's very good. You young ones have confidence where us old folks have experience. And now we come to the next of your duties. I believe I heard you have acquired a crystal of Benevolessence. This is true, yes?" Seeing my gesture of confirmation, he continued. "The essence of mortal gratitude. You must offer it to the Great World Tree, Yggdrasil, who shelters us with Her nurturing boughs from atop the Observatory. I believe she will soon bear fruit at last. Go now, and do as I have instructed."

Giving one last gesture of respect, I took my leave. As I climbed the unnecessary amount of stairs, I thought about what Apus Major had said. Is Yggdrasil really so close to bearing Her fruits, as the legends said?

Once I finally reached the very top, I quickly knelt in front of the Tree and held the Benevolessence above my head. I watched as the crystal floated out my hands and got absorbed by the Tree, causing the Tree to shine a brilliant gold light for a few seconds.

"Behold, Michael…" said Aquila behind me. I stood up and turned around towards him. "Is Yggdrasil, to whom we offer the Benevolessence we gather, not truly beautiful?"

I nodded in agreement and added, "She is even more beautiful when She glows.

I noticed Aquila began staring at Yggdrasil deep in thought. "Gathering and offering up Benevolessence is the most sacred duty with which we Celestrians are charged. I trust you will perform your duties well, Michael, Guardian of Angel Falls."

"You can count on me, Master," I said.

As I began to climb down the stairs, which I have grown to hate, Aquila called to me one last time. "I have been thinking, Michael, Guardian of Angel Falls…"

I looked at him and asked, "Yes?"

"To address you as 'Guardian of Angel Falls' is both convoluted and inconvenient. You will henceforth allow me to use this form of address only when formality dictates, understood?" I quickly agreed. "Good," he said. "It is well that you succumb to my recommendation so quickly, my pupil. As you are well aware, the law forbids a Celestrian to oppose a superior. Now, go to Apus Major and tell him of the successful completion of your task."

Having traversed the staircases again, I once more found myself before Apus Major. "Well done, Michael," he exclaimed. "And how did the mighty Yggdrasil appear to you?"

"She was a true sight to behold. When I gave Her the Benevolessence, She had the brightest glow I had ever seen from Her."

Apus Major nodded. "She was fiercely aglow?" I nodded. "Ho ho ho! It seems the time may soon be upon us. As I am sure you are aware, it is our duty as Celestrians' to tend to the mighty Yggdrasil until such time as She bears fruit. It is to this end that Guardians watch over mortal kind and gather Benevolessence." He smiled. "And now, Michael, Guardian of Angel Falls, I believe you know what you must do next. You are to return to the Protectorate and gather Benevolessence…this time without Aquila to accompany you. Make ready, and then speak with female Celestrian who stands guard over the great portal in the floor below. May all the bodies of the heavens watch over you, Michael, Guardian of Angel Falls."

"Yes, Sir!" I exclaimed. I then turned around and happily _flew_ down the rest of tower to the room with the portal. Wasting no time, I leapt into the portal and landed in Angel Falls, immediately looking for people to help out.

Almost immediately, I ran into the local stray dog. Again, I wondered why animals could see us, but I stopped thinking about it, as the dog was trying to get me to look at a something on the ground. Looking closer, I found a golden ring in the grass. Thinking that somebody had probably lost this and was looking for it, I put it into my pocket for later. "Thanks, boy." The dog barked in return, rolling on his back. Smiling, I rubbed the dog's belly for a minute, and went on my way.

Afterwards, I wandered into a horse stable and found the farmer sleeping on a pile of hay. While looking around, I heard the farmer mutter, "Gutta clen da puh."

It took me a second to realize what he meant, but when I did, I wasn't happy about it. I looked around and found a shovel. Rolling up my sleeves , I grumbled, "You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me." The worst part was I had nowhere to put what I shoveled except – wait for it – my bag.

When I finished, the farmer woke up and said, "Ah! I fell asleep. Now I'll be late for dinner because I still have to clean up all of this sh-." He stopped when he saw that all the mess had disappeared. When he returned to his senses, he exclaimed, "It must have been the guardian, Michael. He must have known how much I wanted a new horse and helped me show my wife I could handle the horse we already have. Thank you, Michael!" He then glowed brightly and a crystal of Benevolessence flew from him into my hands.

"Um…sure. Well, I got Benevolessence and that's all that matters." I exited the stable, emptying my bag into the lake, before heading towards the local church, hoping to both find plenty of people to help in there and to remove whatever was left of the unholy substance that had contaminated my bag. When I entered the church, I saw only two people inside: the priest and an old woman who was praying real hard for something.

I moved closer to her so I could hear what she was saying. "Please help me find my lost ring. It was given to me as a wedding ring from my late husband. It means so much to me and I need it back or I might die from shame." I felt bad for her at first, but then I remembered the ring the dog pointed out to me earlier. I quickly pulled it out of my pocket and slipped it into the woman's own pocket. She paused when she noticed the sudden change in weight in her pocket and stuck her hand into it. Pulling out her hand, she was amazed to see, in her hand, her no-longer-lost ring. "Where did it come from? Michael must have heard my plea for help, found my ring and returned it to me. Thank you, Michael!" She then began to glow brightly and produced another piece of Benevolessence, which I proceeded to pick up and put in my cleansed bag.

Rather content with myself, I exited the church to find that the sun had set and night had fallen. Something to my left then caught my eye and I turned towards it. There, standing on an island in the lake, looking at the waterfall, was Aquila. I walked towards him, catching his attention. "Good evening, Master. For what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?"

Aquila turned towards me. "I expected that I would see you here, Michael. I am currently on my rounds throughout the Protectorate, and I thought I would see how you are faring by yourself." Aquila then pointed out something on the other side of the lake. "See over there? There's a spirit of a dead mortal. One of the most sacred duties of a Celestrian is to aid spirits stuck in the mortal realm to reach the afterlife. Why don't you go over there and try to help him, but be aware that soothing a troubled soul is no easy feat."

Not concerned in the least about by ability to help the spirit, I walked over to the ghost of a man and said, "Hello, Sir. Can I help you?"

The man turned towards me and loudly exclaimed, "Thank goodness! Someone finally noticed me. Yes, you can help me. Can you tell me why everyone I know is ignoring me?"

"Well, putting it bluntly, you're dead."

"Then how can you see me? Are you Michael, our guardian?"

"Yes, actually, I am."

"Oh. Well, there you go. I feel better knowing my friends just weren't being jerks. Thanks for your help. See 'ya later." With that, he started glowing brighter than anything I had seen yet, and rose into the sky until he disappeared in a flash of extremely bright light, leaving a very large, bright piece of Benevolessence.

"That wasn't that hard," I decided.

"That was a…unique situation," said Aquila. "But never mind. You got a powerful piece of Benevolessence, so you should back to Yggdrasil post haste. I will continue my rounds in the Protectorate." Suddenly, the sky brightened for a brief moment as a bright golden streak flew across the sky, "The Starflight Express..." murmured Aquila. "Indeed, it has been unusually active as of late." He turned back to me. "I have changed my mind. I shall accompany you to the Observatory after all, Michael."

Back at the Observatory, Aquila told me he had important business to discuss with Apus Major and told me to quickly see Yggdrasil. Climbing the Observatory, I was too excited to even care about the giant staircases that I had to climb. When I got there, I was very surprised to see that Aquila and Apus Major were already there.

"Well met, Michael!" Aquila exclaimed once he noticed my arrival. "Truly, you have chosen a most fortuitous moment to join us. Behold Yggdrasil. She is ready to burst into bloom with all the Benevolessence we have offered up to her."

My excitement peaked at this point. "Truly?" I asked. I noticed the Tree was glowing softly.

"Ho ho ho!" laughed Apus Major. "Yes, she is but a hair's breadth now from bearing fruit. 'Fyggbloom hails the opening of the heavenly gates, and sets the Celestrians on the path to salvation…'"

"'...And lo, it shall be in the celestial carriage that we, the chosen custodians, journey unto the Realm of the Almighty.'" Aquila finished the legend and turned to me. "It is time, Michael. Offer up the Benevolessence you have gathered unto mighty Yggdrasil. Do so, and She will surely bear fruit at long last."

My heart raced as I stepped forward and offered up all of my Benevolessence to the Tree. As Yggdrasil absorbed it, She began to glow furiously – brighter than anyone of us had ever seen her glow and much brighter than that of a passing spirit. Gold energy flowed from the roots, through the trunk, across the branches, and burst through the leaves in a bright golden color. On Her branches bloomed seven shining fruits, and I heard gasps from all around me – every Celestrian present in the Observatory had come to witness this spectacle.

"Behold!" cried Apus Major. "The sacred Fyggs bloom!" A piercing whistle echoed throughout the tower, and from up above, the shining brilliance that was the Starflight Express soared towards the top of the tower, using the light of Yggdrasil as a beacon. "And the celestial chariot appears…praise be! All is as it was foretold!"

As he finished speaking, the Starflight landed atop the Observatory. This was it – The moment we had all been waiting for for all these years. But, as we started approaching the engine, the tower started shaking violently and a massive purple beam of energy shot up from below and tore right through the Starflight Express, blasting it from the tower to the ground far below us. More beams tore through the tower, one of which was strong enough to blast the seven Fyggs off of their branches and throwing them down after the Starflight.

As more beams continued shooting through the tower, I was knocked off of my feet and I had to grab onto the stairs to keep from falling. For once, I was grateful for their existence.

Through all the madness, I was able to hear Apus Major cry out, "What is happening? Were we…deceived?"

Suddenly, the Observatory rocked especially violently and I was blinded by an extremely close flash of purple. I heard Aquila yell out my name.

When I was able to see again, I was confused at first about why the Observatory was rising into the sky so quickly. Then it hit me.

"Shit!" That was all that was said as I fell towards the Protectorate at such speeds that my wings were easily torn off my body and my halo flew away without a trace. As I continued accelerating downwards, I saw the lake of Angel Falls speeding towards me. Then it hit me.

* * *

**So, there's the first chapter of my story. What do you think of it so far? If you couldn't tell, this is based of _Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky_, which is one of my personal favorite games.**

**If anyone had noticed a large amount of changes in this chapter since I uploaded it, that's because I forgot to make a few revisions before I uploaded, but don't worry, the rest of the chapters should be better.**

**If you like the story, please review, favorite, and follow. The next chapter will be up as soon as I get a chance to work on my final revisions.**

**Until next time, DScribbleF**


	2. Act 1 - Part 1: Grounded

**Hello everyone. Here's the second chapter of the story.**

**It would have been up yesterday, but FanFiction is having a problem uploading documents right now. Just getting this up was a hassle.**

**Anyways, thanks to the people who favorited, followed, and reviewed after the first chapter. It means a lot to me. **

**That's all I have to say, so enjoy Chapter Two.**

**Disclaimer:**

**Dragon Quest IX is the rightful property of Square Enix and I own nothing in this story except my original characters.**

* * *

_Act 1 - Part 1: Grounded_

(Michael's POV)

It's been three days since the incident happened, and I'm still confused about what had just happened. It's for this question that I have spent two-and-a-half days standing in front of Angel Falls' guardian statue thinking. That and my legs have grown really stiff from not moving.

There was so much to think about what had transpired over the past few days. When I first woke up after falling, I noticed my wings and halo were both gone. Now trust me, that in itself is weird, but what I found even weirder was Erinn, who had found me unconscious in the lake, and everyone else in town, could actually see me.

That fact right there disturbed me a bit, actually. It was one of the sacred lessons taught to Celestrians that mortals can never see or hear a Celestrian. But now they can see me. Why?

Beyond that little fact, I also thought of Aquila, Apus Major, and the other Celestrians who were in Observatory that night. Had others fallen with me, or was I the only one to suffer such a fate?

It was while thinking this that the carving on the base of the statue caught my eye again and I smirked while reading it: 'Michael, Guardian of Angel Falls.' This led me to think back to four days ago, when I had watched two boys from the village, Ivor and Hugo, arguing over the inscription. Ivor, who was the mayor's son and a troublemaker, kept insisting that it hadn't always said Michael, but actually used to say Aqui-something. Hugo, on the other hand, claimed that it had said Michael for as long as he could remember.

That day, a little boy had prayed that someone teach Ivor a lesson for being such a meanie to everyone else. I happily complied and smacked him upside the head. I was going to do it anyway since he said right in front of me that he didn't believe in the Guardians.

Alas, that was a different time. Now, I have nothing but my thoughts to keep me entertained. Actually, Ivor's been rather quiet as of late…

"Hey, it's that Michael character that turned up just after the earthquake the other day."

Speak of the devil…

I turned around, already annoyed with Ivor's condescending tone, and saw Ivor and Hugo walking up the hill where the statue rests. "Oi! Wakey, wakey!" Ivor shouted to me. "What are you doing there, staring off into space?"

I wasn't planning on answering him anyway, but before I could even get a chance to ignore him, Ivor continued speaking, ignoring me instead. "I don't know what Erinn thinks she's doing bothering with the likes of him. He won't tell us where he's from, his clothes are all weird…I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him!" If only I had wings…

"I bet it's his name that's got Erinn so keen." Hugo had decided to join the one-sided conversation. "It is the same as our village Guardian's, after all."

At this, Ivor snorted. "Hah! I doubt it's even his real name. I bet he's just some no-good wandering minstrel taking on a Guardian's name to get a free lunch." He turned back to me, not that I cared anymore. "Well, listen to this, oddball! I won't let you get away with any funny business on my watch."

"Yeah, watch your step!" Hugo teased. "Ivor doesn't like Erinn giving all her attention to you." I choked back a laugh at that.

Ivor spun towards Hugo and yelled at him. "Shut up, you idiot! Why would you say that?" Then something behind Hugo caught his attention. "Uh-oh!"

Erinn was walking up the hill to join us. "What's going on?" she asked. "Why do you guys keep bothering Michael?"

Ivor suddenly became very flustered, a fact that wasn't lost on anybody, especially me. "Er…hi, Erinn! Nothing's going on. Just teaching Michael here a few village rules. Anyway, we were just leaving. Come on, Hugo." They both ran down the hill and across the bridge over the lake. I couldn't help but laugh at Ivor's obvious crush on Erinn.

Erinn watched them go. "I don't know why Ivor's so full of himself these days," she murmured. "He never used to be like that." Turning back to me, she said, "Anyway, you look like you're feeling better now." She then looked around nostalgically. "Coming up here reminds me of when I found you up here." She glanced across the lake. "It was surprising, to say the least. You must have gotten caught up in the earthquake and fallen from the top of the waterfall. You're lucky you survived…" Thinking about it, I could probably credit my survival to the fact that Celestrians have stronger bodies than the mortals. While I was thinking about this, Erinn turned back to me. "Anyway, I'm heading home. There's nothing more to do at the inn for now. Enjoy your time outside, but don't overdo it, okay? I'll see you back at the house."

After watching her leave, I turned back to the statue, gave one last prayer for the safety for my fellow Celestrians, then slowly limped over to Erinn's house (My legs were still stiff).

When Erinn heard me enter, she turned away from the stove where she was working and addressed me. "Oh! Hello, Michael," she said. "You're back sooner than I expected. I'm preparing dinner at the moment, so could you please come back in a little while? Since you seem to have mostly recovered from your fall, why don't you go for a nice walk around the village and say hello to everyone?" I agreed with her and returned to the outside.

However, I didn't say hello to anybody. I was fully aware no one wanted to talk with me, so I happily ignored all of them. Many of them thought that I was the source of all the bad luck that the village had had since the earthquake – including the increased monster threat around the village and the landslide that blocked the nearby mountain pass. Not wanting any problems, I just walked around aimlessly.

As I passed Mayor Litlun's house, I heard Ivor arguing with his father. Interested, I paused outside the window to listen.

"Isn't it about time you did something useful with yourself rather than just hanging about the place causing trouble?" interrogated the mayor. "You'd do well to take a leaf out of Erinn's book. She puts in a lot of hard work at the inn, that girl."

Mentioning Erinn seemed to have touched one of Ivor's nerves, much to my humor. "Huh! What's Erinn got to do with it? I am trying to find something I want to do, anyway. And when I figure out what that is, I'll work my socks off! Probably…"

Shaking my head, I decided to head back to Erinn's. Dinner was probably ready, and I was looking forward to another one of Erinn's amazing meals. Also, I was really hungry.

When I walked in, Erinn happily greeted me. "Hello again, Michael. I've just finished supper. You look like you enjoyed your walk. I bet you're tired though, so how about we all eat than you can go to bed?"

"That sounds good," I replied. After helping her set the table, all three of us (Don't forget Flinn) ate a delicious dinner. When we had finished, I helped Erinn clean up the kitchen, then when upstairs and partook in this activity that the mortals call 'sleep.' Celestrians don't normally rest as enthusiastically as the humans do, but I found it interestingly refreshing.

The next morning, I was woken up by someone knocking softly on my bedroom door. "Michael, are you up? It's me, Erinn."

"I – _yawn –_ am now." I'm starting to see why mortals enjoy sleep.

"Good, because Ivor's here, and he's got something or another he wants to talk to you about. He knows you're here, so I can't very well turn him away. Just give him a few minutes of you time, okay?"

After hearing here footsteps recede, I put my hand on my face and groaned. "Great."

Heading downstairs, I saw Ivor waiting nervously in the doorway. "Hey, Michael," he said. "Don't look so surprised. There's something I want to talk to you about, that's all. We can't talk about it here, though. Please come outside for a moment."

Once we left the house, we went around to the side of the house that didn't have any windows. "What do you want?" I asked him, not really in the mood for all of this drama.

"So, here's the thing," he began. "You've heard about how the pass has been blocked by a landslide, right? Well, that pass is a lifeline here in Angel Falls. We're totally cut off if we can't use it. It's a real problem for Eri- a real problem for everyone, I mean."

I smiled at his little slip-up.

"So, I was thinking: what better time for Ivor to come to rescue?"

My smile was immediately knocked off by the implied facepalm that appeared on my face.

"I'm going to clear the landslide and make it passable again. I know Erinn will be pleased as well. There's just one hitch with my perfect plan. Since the earthquake, there have been lots more monsters about, and it's pretty dangerous to leave the village now."

I had a bad feeling about where this was going…

"That's where you come in."

I knew it!

"I was thinking that maybe you could tag along. You minstrel types are generally pretty handy in a scrap, right?"

Oh, yeah. Everyone thought I was a minstrel because of my Celestial garb. Typical.

"Can I count on you to help me out?" Ivor concluded.

After taking a minute to contemplate the pros and cons of his plan, I finally answered, "Sure." I needed to get out of the village for a little while anyway. Being stuck here with nothing to do was getting really boring.

"I knew it!" he exclaimed. "Right then, you lead the way, Michael. It's easy enough to find. You just head out of the village and follow the road east. Oh, yeah, and let's keep this to ourselves, okay? We don't want everyone sticking their beaks in."

I agreed, quickly ran upstairs, grabbed my sword and bag, and headed towards the exit of the village with Ivor. However, standing by the arch at the edge of town was Hugo. "Here comes another lamb to the slaughter!" he said. "You can't go out there, you know. There are monsters about."

"Stop trying to scare people!" Ivor ordered. "We're leaving the village and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

At that moment, Hugo realized that I was standing there with Ivor. "W-wait a minute!" he said. "What are you doing with Michael, Ivor?"

"He's coming with me to help clear the landslide and stop any monsters that get in our way," Ivor explained.

"Oh, that makes everything better then. Traveling with the strange outsider with a weapon that isn't on the best terms with you into dangerous territory. That's totally safe."

"Hey!" I yelled.

"Just let us by, would you? Hold us up any longer and there'll be trouble!" threatened Ivor.

Finally, Hugo ceded, "G-go, then. I'm not stopping you." He moved aside and we walked out of the village. "But if you get tired or hurt, you'll come straight back to the village if you know what's good for you," Hugo yelled after us. "A quick rest should be enough to get your strength back up again. There's no need to be a hero!" If only he knew.

It took an hour to walk all the way to the pass, and during that time, we were attacked by seven groups of monsters: Three Slimes, two Cruelcumbers, a pack of Teeny Sanguini, a Sacksquatch, two Batterflies, a swarm of Drackys, and a Bodkin Archer. Of course, I destroyed all of them instantly with my sword. After their seventh defeat, the rest of the monsters purposely stayed out of our way.

After a while, we finally reached the pass, which was split into three paths. "Finally!" exclaimed Ivor. "We're here at last. The landslide should be around here somewhere."

I didn't really hear him, as something slightly more important had captured my attention. There, lying across the middle path, stood the engine to the Starflight Express, although it no longer had its golden glow.

Ivor seemed to have noticed that I was no longer with him, so he walked back to me. "What are you staring at?" Obviously, he couldn't see it. "There's just a bunch of fallen trees from the earthquake. I don't get what's so fascinating about it. You can be properly weird sometimes, you know that?" He turned back to the left path. "The landslide's this way. I'll go on ahead!"

After looking at it for another few seconds, I managed to turn away and follow Ivor up the path.

* * *

(No One's POV)

As Michael followed Ivor towards the landslide, a bright pink ball, unnoticed by both of them, flew out of trees and in front of the fallen locomotive. "That was weird. It was almost as if he could see the Starflight Express…"

* * *

(Michael's POV)

Ivor and I were standing in front of the landside, both surprised at how big it really was. "This is worse than I thought!" said Ivor. "Is this it? But it's so much bigger than I thought… You and I will never be able to shift this on our own. Stupid landslide. And I was all ready to see the look on Dad's face when I came back to the village a hero…" He then punched the dirt while crying. "Waaaah!" I just stood there, shaking my head.

"Hellooo!" a voice suddenly called out from the other side. "Is somebody there? Hellooo! If you're there, say something!"

We both jumped from the surprise of hearing someone else out here. "Huh?" Ivor said. "It sounds like there's someone on the other side!" I gave him a look that screamed 'No, duh!' Ignoring me, he yelled back "Hey! I'm over here. It's me, Ivor from Angel Falls. No doubt you've heard of me!" I suddenly felt a powerful desire to strangle him.

"Jings!" replied the other voice. "Someone from Angel Falls! We're soldiers sent from Stornway. King Schott sent us to clear the landslide."

"Blimey?" He turned to me. "The King of Stornway must really rate Angel Falls to bother helping us out like that."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I suppose that means we're not really needed here, then."

"Huh!" exclaimed Ivor. "Now I wish we hadn't bothered coming all this way." Finally, something we could both really agree on.

As we turned to leave, one of the soldiers called out, "Wait! There's an urgent matter we need to ask you about."

We both stopped and I yelled back, "What is it?"

"Do you know if a lass called Patty made her way to your village just after the earthquake? She works at the inn in Stornway, but she took off one day for Angel Falls and we've heard nothing of her since."

"Patty?" Ivor repeated, looking at me? I could only shrug in reply. "Nope, doesn't ring any bells," Ivor said. "Why would she come to Angel Falls anyway?"

I swear the soldier's voice sounded like it shrugged as he replied, "Aye, well, rumor has it that she was on her way there through the Hexagon. The path there's been blocked, too, so we've no way of finding out where she is."

Ivor turned to me. "The Hexagon?" he said incredulously. "That old ruin we had to go traipsing all the way through before this pass was built? No one goes there anymore. It's jam-packed with monsters and falling apart so badly it might come down on your head!" Turning back towards the soldiers, he replied, "There's no way a woman would go through there alone. The rumors must be wrong."

I somehow managed to hear a sigh from behind the wall. "Alright, well, perhaps you could just relay to your village the fact that the road will be open again soon. An if you could ask around about Patty while you're there, that'd be grand."

"No problemo!" Ivor responded. "Just leave it to me. You can always count on Ivor!" He turned to me and said, "Come on, Michael. Home time! I reckon they'll be pretty pleased to hear the news." On that note, Ivor and I turned around and left the pass, sparing one last glance towards the downed engine as I passed it.

Halfway through our walk back to the village, we were jumped by a Sacksquatch. It tackled me in the stomach, which winded me and knocked me over, but thankfully it didn't do cause a serious injury. Quickly getting back up, I drew my sword and saw that Ivor had drawn his, too. Ignoring the pain I was feeling, I ran at the menacing bag of sand and slashed it right down the middle, causing it to explode into purple dust, leaving behind a small pile of coins, which I pocketed.

Of course, now there was the problem of my now heavily bruised torso. It would be a major pain (literally and figuratively) to head all the way back to Angel Falls in my condition, so I had to come up with something fast because it was getting dark. Thinking back, I remembered a healing spell that I had been taught some time ago. Acting quickly, I placed my hand on my abdomen and began summoning the needed magic.

As I finished, I looked down and saw that all the bruises had gone away completely. "Whoa! You know magic?" shouted Ivor, surprised.

"Yeah, a bit." I replied. "Let's hurry back to the village – The sun has almost set completely."

When we finally returned to the village, the sun was barely over the horizon. Ivor headed straight home to tell his father the news and I followed. When we had finished explaining what happened, the mayor responded, "I see. So the soldiers from Stornway should have the pass cleared for us before long?"

"That's right," Ivor said. "Everyone will be so pleased to hear the news. Ivor saves the day, eh?" I sighed. Ivor clearly wasn't as observant of his father's suspiciously calm demeanor as I was.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Litlun suddenly yelled, causing Ivor to jump and me to wince. "You were foolish to go all the way out there, just the two of you. Utterly foolish!"

Confused and flustered, Ivor stuttered, "B-but! Why are you so angry? If we hadn't gone to the landslide, you'd never have known it was about to be cleared."

"So what?" replied Litlun angrily. "If I didn't know now, I'd have found out soon enough. Knowing a little bit sooner is hardly worth risking your life for. That's why I'm angry. That's why you're foolish."

"…Gah! Fine!…" Ivor said. Then he snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah, there was something else. Something I heard from one of the soldiers. They want us to find some girl called Patty who went missing on her way here."

At this point, I have been silently walking back towards the door in order to leave the conversation, but it seems my plans were thwarted as I suddenly heard footsteps outside and Erinn ran into the room. "Wait a minute!" she yelled. "Is that true?"

Ivor nearly had a heart attack as Erinn suddenly joined our conversation. "Erinn! What are you doing here?"

Erinn angrily retorted, "What do you think? I'm here because I heard you whisked Michael off on some silly adventure!"

"I was not 'whis–'" I began to protest, but Erinn kept speaking.

"Anyway, never mind that. Is it true that Patty from Stornway has gone missing?"

"Ah, yes," Litlun said. "You're from Stornway originally, aren't you, Erinn? Do you know the woman?"

Erinn suddenly became nervous and sullen. "I seem to remember my dad talking about someone called Patty from his days in Stornway. Oh, dear! Maybe she didn't know he'd passed away and she was coming here to see him." I could see that she still missed her father as she spoke, but it quickly passed.

"Hmm…" said Litlun. "Well, I can understand everyone's concerns, but we can't very well send off a search party with no lead to go on."

"Actually," Ivor added, having recovered from the series of shocks to his system, "the soldier said something about how she might've been on her way here through the Hexagon."

Litlun's eyes widened. "Is that so? Well, even if that is the case, we still can't be of any help. The Hexagon is far too dangerous nowadays." He turned to Erinn and asked, "Erinn, why don't you take Michael home now? Try not to worry about her too much." Turning back to his son with a dangerous glare, he finished, "I'd appreciate a bit of privacy so I can talk some sense into this pig-headed son of mine."

"T-there's no need for that, Dad!" Ivor sputtered; but it was to no avail. As Erinn and I left the house, Litlun began a lengthy and scarring scolding against Ivor.

When we returned to the house, Erinn led me upstairs so we could talk. "I was so worried when I'd heard you'd left the village, Michael," she began. "You seem to be unscathed, though. You're obviously a lot tougher than I thought." I gladly accepted her praise. "Speaking of which, um…I wondered if I could ask you a favor, Michael."

"Of course," I answered. "What do you need, Erinn?"

"You see," she began, "I'm quite worried about all this talk of Patty going missing. So, I was wondering if you could-" She then stopped and shook her head. "Oh, never mind! The Hexagon is really far too dangerous. I couldn't possibly ask that much of you." She sighed. "I'm obviously worried about Patty, but it's far too dangerous to go off to the Hexagon looking for her. All we can do is pray to the Almighty to keep her safe.

Then she bowed her head and began praying right there. "Guardian Michael, please watch over Patty and see that she comes to no harm." I suddenly felt really uneasy and excused myself outside to get some fresh air.

I soon found myself before my Guardian statue once again. In the silence of the night, I was able to hear the prayers of the village in my head. Everyone in Angel Falls was praying for the same thing: for Patty and her safety.

I knelt in front of the statue. _What am I supposed to do?_ I prayed. _Help me, Almighty, please. What can I do to help all these people? To return to the Observatory? To find Patty? And what of the Starflight?_ The Starflight! I had completely forgotten about it in the excitement of earlier. Maybe I could use it to return to the Observatory! Oh, but I should really make sure everything is fine in the village before I leave. In that case, I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

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**So, how was this chapter? I hope you liked it. If you see any errors or typos, please feel free to message me. I want my work to be as perfect as possible for you guys.**

**If you like the story, please review, favorite, and follow. The next chapter will be up eventually.**

**Until next time, DScribbleF**


	3. Act 1 - Part 2: Inncredible Inncidences

**By the Almighty, this chapter is a beast. It's almost double the length of the last chapter, but I couldn't find a good place to break it.**

**This chapter has everything. Action. Drama. Humor. Hellos. Goodbyes. Touching moments. Annoying moments. You name it.**

**It probably would have been finished sooner, but this wonderful class called IB Physics SL decided to give me a 99 page practice test for homework, and it took me forever to finish it.**

**At this point, I've gotten some helpful reviews, so I've decided to do what I've seen some other authors do, and reply to each of them before I start the story.**

**Reviews**

**princessdaisy01: Thanks for your encouragement. I'm happy that my story has you so enthralled.**

**Casamora: Thanks for the compliment. I am really trying to keep this as close to the game as possible. I know the type of stories that you are talking about, and I kind of feel the same way about them.**

**Luckenhaft: I'm happy that my story makes you laugh. Thanks for the heads up on the typo, and don't worry about my update schedule. It should never be too long between each chapter. Also, 'Jings' is a Scottish slang used to express surprise. Basically, 'Oh my God' or 'Holy shit!'**

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_Act 1 - Part 2: Inncredible Inncidences_

"See you later, Michael," Erinn said as I left her house the next morning. "Don't push yourself too hard, will you?"

I smiled inwardly as I replied, "Don't worry, Erinn. I won't do anything stupid."

After stopping by the village store and stocking up on supplies, I quickly headed out of the village, turning down a second path that led towards the ruins. It was a fairly warm day, but when I stepped into the clearing of the Hexagon, the temperature suddenly dropped to a more chilling temperature.

The Hexagon, no doubt at one time a magnificent piece of architecture, lay in complete disrepair. The once-standing archways before the entrance had all fallen into dangerous pools of poison, and whole sections of the building had collapsed into itself. Needless to say, I was very careful as I gingerly stepped into the stone structure.

I walked straight through the first room until I reached a door that had a large slab of stone blocking it. As I moved forward to inspect the stone, I noticed that it had something written on it: 'Path ahead sealed due to beast-related fatalities.' As I finished reading, I felt something's presence behind me.

Slowly turning around, I saw a ghost – A ghost I knew well: Edwinn, Erinn's father. He turned and walked away, saying nothing. I followed after him, sure he was trying to show me something. We entered into a side passage which I had ignored earlier, and he walked up to an odd statue that stood at the end. Then a deeply depressed sound reached my ears. "On the…back of…this statue…" Then Edwinn simply disappeared, leaving me alone with the statue, which I quickly examined. On the back of the statue's neck, I found a button, which I pressed without hesitation. Everything suddenly started shaking as the sound of stone scraping against stone was heard back in the main passage. I hurried back, avoiding newly fallen stone, and discovered that the large stone slab had slid away from the door.

In the next chamber there were two staircases that led downwards. The left one came to a dead-end, so I went back and took the right staircase. As I moved through the next few passages, I defeated a few monsters that got in my way, including a few Mecha-mynahs, Firespirits, Spirits, and even a rare Bag o' laughs. I also found a leather shield, which I really needed, because the monsters I was encountering were getting stronger.

I eventually reached a large chamber filled with piles of fallen rubble. As I approached the center of the room, I came found a young woman struggling to escape a pile of rocks that had fallen on her leg. I quickly ran over to her to help.

"Oh, my – I never expected to bump into anyone all the way down here!" she said. "Hey, sweetie, you couldn't be a hero and shift some of this rubble for me, could ya? I'm not badly hurt or anything, but I'm kinda stuck here, ya know? And I don't fancy being around when that beast comes back."

As I was carefully trying to remove the rubble, I paused for a moment and asked, "Wait. What beast…?"

Before the woman could answer me, though, I felt the entire ruins tremble and I heard something heavy land nearby where I was standing. Looking around, I saw a large, dark shape standing in a cloud of dust. "Oh, bother!" the woman said. "It's back!"

As the dust cleared, it revealed the shape of a large, pink-hided, four-legged creature with green fur and large horns. "What is this thing?" I asked, struggling to stay calm.

"It's a Hexagoon," she told me. "I got trapped trying to run away from this guy and not looking where I was going. Watch your head, sweetie!" I suddenly realized why this whole building was crumbling so quickly: This thing was knocking it down.

Swallowing my fear, I stepped away from the rubble, holding my sword and shield before me. It was my duty to keep this woman safe – No matter the risks.

For a moment, we just stared at each other: It was just me and the Hexagoon. Then I charged at him, slicing it all the way along its side. Rather than roar in pain, as I had expected, though, the Hexagoon snarled in anger and quickly charged at me. I barely managed to get out of the way, but one of his horns still managed to cut my arm, causing a sharp pain.

I quickly used a healing spell, then jumped out and slashed at the beast's face, causing a deep gash across its nose. Of course, that really pissed it off, so, instead of charging me again as I had expected, it reared up on its two hind legs and smashed the floor with its humongous feet. The resulting tremors were nothing like what I had experienced before. The shockwave hit me like a wagon and turned my legs to jelly, making it increasingly difficult to dodge the heavy avalanche of debris that plummeted out of the ceiling. Needless to say, it really hurt, and I had to use another healing spell before I could continue.

After what seemed like an eternity filled with cuts, bruises, and healing, I finally managed to strike a critical blow against the Hexagoon's neck. Finally, it roared in pain instead of anger, stumbled backwards, and fell over with one final crash.

Feeling more than a little relieved and proud of myself, I stood before the fallen beast and taunted, "That's what you get for having a stupid name like Hexagoon. Who came up with that, anyway?" Evidently, Ivor's personality was rubbing off on me. I better be careful.

I turned back towards where the woman was, but she was gone. A quick search found her standing straight and tall by the stairs. She clearly had managed to free herself and neglected to tell me while I was fighting for her safety. "You're tougher than you look," she complimented. I was beginning to like this concept of praise.

"Thanks," I managed to reply tiredly.

The woman smiled at me. "Thanks for saving my hide there. You're a doll. Ya know, I managed to shake myself free in all the chaos. So, let's get outta here, huh? Being attacked by monsters is such a drag!"

'_You have no idea,'_ I thought to myself.

We quickly made our way out of the ruins. I really wasn't looking forward to fighting through all the monsters again; but apparently news of my recent defeat of the Hexagoon had spread quickly, as everything we met ran from us like we were death itself, which, from their perspective, I suppose I was.

When we finally emerged from the decrepit structure, the woman turned to me. "Phew!" she said. "We're safe now, I guess. Ya know, I'm just not a dark ruins type of gal! I'm Patty, by the way. I run the inn over in Stornway. And you are?"

"I'm Michael," I told her. "I'm the gua- a wandering minstrel who's staying in Angel Falls for a little while."

Thankfully, Patty didn't notice my mistake, but I think that was because as soon as I mentioned Angel Falls, her eyes suddenly lit up. "Ah! That reminds me," she said. "I've got to get to Angel Falls right away. See ya, sweetie! And thanks a bunch for your help!"

As she headed down the path towards Angel Falls, I took one last look at this terrible excuse of a building. Then I also began heading back towards the village, looking forward to a nice rest when I got back.

When I finally returned to the village half an hour later, I decided to stop by the inn to see if Erinn and Patty were talking with each other. Also, I wanted to know what was so important that it prompted Patty to go through Hexa-Penta-Quadra-Screw it. It barely passes as a triangle at this point.

When I entered, Patty was standing before the front desk, arms crossed before, looking around. "Uh-huh, this is Edwinn's place, alright!" she exclaimed. "No one else knew how to do it quite like he did. The original host with the most!"

"Did you know my father, then?" asked Erinn, who was standing behind the counter, watching the strange woman before her. Her eyes suddenly lit up in understanding. "Oh! You must be Patty! I was so worried about you. I heard that someone called Patty had gone missing on their way here."

"Yup, that's me, honey!" Patty said, smiling brightly. "You were worried, huh? That's sweet. And I can't believe you remembered my name. You were so tiny. So…where's old Edwinn hiding, huh?" She was looking around the inn, as though expecting him to jump out from behind something. Erinn was right: Patty didn't know of Edwinn's fate.

Erinn looked down with an expression that caused part of me to die inside. "Ah," she murmured. "I thought you were probably coming to see him. I'm afraid that he's no longer with us… It was two years ago now…" I could see that she was struggling to not start crying on the spot as she spoke.

To say that it shocked Patty would have been a gross understatement. "Huh? No longer with us…? You mean he's passed away?"

Erinn nodded. "Sadly, yes."

"Wow," Patty said. "I, I can't believe it…so the Inncredible…that's…gee, what does that mean for my old inn, then?" She seemed to have lost her train of thought for a moment. Then I saw something new flash across her eyes. "I guess if Edwinn's gone, that means you're running this place all on your own, huh?"

"Um, well, yes," Erinn said, now becoming confused.

Patty turned away, scanning the room. "It's not the biggest inn in the world, but it's so quaint. I bet the guests feel more welcome here than they do in their own homes!"

Erinn smiled at the compliment, but still remained rather confused. "That's very kind of you. I try to do my best to honor my father's memory by keeping the place running smoothly."

Without turning, Patty continued, "Hey, I wouldn't expect anything else from the daughter of the Inncredible Inntertainer, honey!"

This is when the conversation officially lost me. Erinn seemed equally confused. "Um," she began cautiously, "about this 'Inncredible' thing…"

Not seeming to hear, Patty finally turned back towards Erinn. "Hey, I don't suppose you'd wanna give running an inn in Stornway a shot, do ya?"

Two jaws hit the floor, and Patty's wasn't one of them.

"Um…I beg your pardon!" cried Erinn, still completely lost in the conversation.

"Follow me, honey," Patty ordered, heading into the sole bedroom of the inn. "I've got some stuff to tell you." Noticing me as she walked past, she added "You come along too, Michael." Not really having much of a choice, Erinn and I followed after her.

We gathered around the small table and Erinn asked, "So when Dad was in Stornway, people used to call him the 'Inncredible Inntertainer'?"

"You better believe it, honey!" confirmed Patty. "He was the best of the best! He was only a young guy back then, but he set up his own inn from scratch and totally put his rivals out of business!"

"Goodness!" Erinn said, shocked. "I can't imagine him being like that." I almost nodded in agreement, but stopped myself at the last second: It would have been hard to explain how a strange wandering minstrel knew Erinn's father. Erinn continued: "He always seemed so unadventurous to me, and he said he was happy to run even the smallest of inns as long as we were together."

"Yeah, that's the funny thing…" Patty said. "Why would a guy like Edwinn choose to ship out to a hick town like this?" Erinn and I both remained silent; Erinn had absolutely no idea, and the fact that Patty thought my village was a hick town insulted me. "Well, I guess that's water under the bridge," Patty finally decided. "The thing is, his old place in Stornway is in real trouble right now. We were all kinda hoping that the Inncredible Inntertainer would make a comeback and get things back on track again…" She sighed. "I just can't believe I didn't know he died two whole years ago. I mean, gee! I'm so sorry honey," she added, looking softly at Erinn.

Erinn shook away the excessive sympathy. "Not at all. I'm just sorry that you came all this way for nothing."

"Hey, no apology needed," Patty said, waving it off. "I mean, I got to meet you instead, right? You're coming back with me to Stornway."

As she said that, I noticed Erinn suddenly became incredibly tense. "Um… I don't think that's possible. I have my hands full with this place as it is. And I just find it hard to believe that Dad was some kind of legendary innkeeper."

"Hard to believe?" Patty asked, almost sounding offended. "You can't argue with the facts, honey. And I can see you're a chip off the old block, too. I've got a knack for seeing people's strengths, ya know."

It seemed that this conversation was starting to make Erinn really distressed. She kept looking around as if trying to find a way out. "Oh, dear," she said, having found one. "It's getting late and I really need to get started on supper. Excuse me." She flew out of her seat and sprinted to the door, but as she reached it, she turned back and yelled back, "And I can't go to Stornway with you, so stop trying to persuade me!" With that, she dashed out of the inn and slammed the door so hard behind her that the building shook in response.

Patty, rather unperturbed by recent events, walked to the doorway and leaned against it. "A stubborn one, huh?" she said to herself. "Don't worry, sweetie, you'll see sense before long!" Then she turned back to me. "Hey…" she said, smiling. "Yeah, I thought I recognized you. You're the guy who helped me out back at the ruins, right?" I honestly found it hard to believe that this woman was so daft that she had forgotten that I was the one who had saved her not three hours ago, but I still nodded in approval. "You know, while you're in the helping mood, honey, you couldn't try to twist Erinn's arm, could you? I can't let that kind of talent go to waste. It'd be good for her too, you know?"

"I'll see what I can do," I said, not really wanting to twist anyone's arms except for Patty's. Ivor's too, I guess. As I left the inn, I felt that Erinn really did want to go to Stornway. However, I could tell how scared Erinn was about taking such a large move into the unknown.

Stepping off of the bridge near Erinn's house, I found the ghost of Edwinn, facing away from me, blocking the door. "Excuse me, sir," I said to him, causing him to jump in fright.

"Waaah!" he screamed, turning towards me. "You g-gave me a fright! D-don't do that again, will you?

"I won't, sorry," I apologized, trying to hide the pleasure I felt from scaring a ghost of all things. Then I counted down from four. Three… Two… One…

"Wait a minute! You can see me?" Edwinn screamed, again.

"Yup."

"But I'm dead."

"Correct again."

After processing this new information, Edwinn seemed to calm down a little and began looking at me rather curiously. "I had a feeling that you could see me back at the Hexagon, too. That's quite a strange talent you've got there. Sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? I'm Erinn's father, Edwinn. I fell ill two years ago and died suddenly. But as you can see, I still haven't managed to leave this mortal realm entirely. And you are?"

"Michael," I responded, much to Edwinn's astonishment.

Edwinn glanced towards the guardian statue, back at me, back at the statue, back at me, back… I think you get the idea. "…Really? R-really?" he stuttered. "B-but…Michael…isn't that…? Aren't you the village Guardian?"

I barely managed to nod in confirmation when we heard a feminine voice yelling from our right. "HEY! HANG ON A MINUTE!" I turned towards the voice to meet a flash of pink and blonde that hit me in the face, knocking me down, dazed.

When my vision cleared back up again, I saw a blonde faerie hovering over me. She had a large pink flower in her hair, an orange ruffled dress, pink wings, and black leggings. And a really upset look on her face. "Um…Ow?" was all I could say. Edwinn seemed equally surprised.

"Oi, watch where you're flapping standing!" the faerie scolded me. "I may be skinny as a rake, but I still need a bit of room for maneuvers! Never mind, I forgive you. Now, old man! What was that rubbish you were just sprouting?"

I hadn't even fully stood up yet when the faerie finished saying this, so it wasn't too surprising that Edwinn was at a loss for words at the sudden interrogation. "I, er…I'm not sure what you mean."

"You were on about Celestrians, right? I wondered the same thing at first, but this mess of a minstrel hardly foots the bill! I don't see a halo, do you? And I don't see any wings, either. Bit odd for a Celestrian, that, wouldn't you say?" I would've protested at this, but, by all lines of reasoning, she had a point.

"I suppose you're right," Edwinn agreed. "Though, while we're on the subject of odd, who and what are you?"

"Ha! Wouldn't you like to know," said the faerie. She looked at the two of us for a moment, and for the first time in a long time, I gave someone the Look. I can't describe what the look looks like. I can only say that it always works. Like now. "…Yes, I suppose you would," the faerie decided. "Then I'd better introduce myself. Wait for it…I am the supreme, stupendous Stella, stunning skipper of the sky-soaring Starflight Express! Ta daa!"

'_So humble,_' I thought '_Wait…_' "YOU'RE the captain of the Starflight Express!?"

"Yes. Do try to keep up," she replied. At this point, Edwinn pretty much just quit the conversation as things had gotten too confusing for him. Even I was having trouble comprehending what was going on. Turning to me, Stella began grilling me for information. "Right then, your turn," she said. "Time to fly your true colors and tell us who you really are. You look like a regular mortal to me, so how come you can see the Starflight Express and ghosts like this old bloke?"

I took a deep breath and explained everything that had happened over the past few days. I talked about the Observatory and Fyggbloom and the energy beams and falling and the mountain pass and the Hexagon and Patty and some annoying faerie that flew into my face. If someone had written everything I had said, I bet it would have taken at least two-and-a-half chapters to get it all down.

"Sounds like a bit of a tall yarn, if you ask me," Stella said when I'd finished. "If you lost your wings and halo, how is it that you can still see ghosts and the like? Bit neither here nor there, isn't it?" I was about to object, but she continued speaking. "I know! If you're a Celestrian, then prove it. Send someone's spirit up to the heavens. You've got nothing to lose, and this old bloke here just happens to be in need of a shove in the righteous direction."

"Wait!" Edwinn said, trying to rejoin the conversation. "Are you talking about me? I'm not exactly happy as I am, but…" He trailed off, unable to fully gather his thoughts.

"Let me guess, you're only a ghost because you've got some unfinished business to put to sleep, right?" Stella asked. Edwinn only nodded. Turning to me, she continued. "Alright then, help this spook here to tie up his loose ends and then send him on his way. Then I'll believe you're a Celestrian, and I might even give you a ride back up to the Observatory on the old Starflight Express. Can't say faerier than that, right?"

I felt a burst of excitement at her words. Finally, a way back to the Observatory! Maybe, if I was lucky, Apus Major would know how to give me back my wings and halo. That, and I could discover what had happened to the rest of the Celestrians, especially Aquila. I happily agreed to Stella's proposition.

"So I'll tag along with you for a while until the job's done," Stella said. "While we're at it, I should probably warn you that I'll be keeping tags on you while I'm tagging along." I agreed and we both turned towards Edwinn, who was once again at a complete loss.

"Well, this is all rather strange," he said.

"Yeah, sorry about that," I replied.

He laughed once. "Still, I appreciate your willingness to help." He looked off into the distance for a moment, and I could see how much his daughter resembled him as he did. "Hmm…" he thought out loud. "I wonder what unfinished business is stopping me from going up to the heavens. I don't suppose…I wonder if it's something to do with that thing I buried behind the inn."

Edwinn became completely lost in thought at this point, so I turned to Stella and asked, "Do you want to go check the back of the inn?"

"Sounds good," Stella agreed. "Let's go!"

When I walked around the inn, I found that the area between the back of the inn and the face of the cliff was much too small for anyone to hide anything. Abandoning that direction, I began inspecting the grassy ledge that hung over the lake. Beneath a large bush, I found a small bump in the ground. Digging with my hands, I found something golden under the dirt. A few more minutes of digging and using my sword as leverage, and I managed to pull up a large golden trophy. Brushing some dirt of the base, I found an inscription, which I read for Stella. "Awarded to Edwinn by HRH King Schott of Stornway for Inncredible achievements in Inntertainment."

"This must be it!" cheered Stella. Putting the trophy in my bag – the inside was bigger than the outside – I quickly ran back to where Edwinn was waiting.

"That's it!" Edwinn exclaimed when I pulled out the trophy. "That's my Inny! Goodness, that takes me back a bit." He smiled, but it slowly faded away as he continued speaking. "The truth is, I hid it away when I came to Angel Falls. I didn't want Erinn to know. And I didn't want to spend my whole time being reminded about Stornway…" He sighed. "Erinn was very weak as a child," he explained. "I came back to live in Angel Falls for her sake. It was what my late wife wanted – what Erinn's mother wanted. So I brought the poor thing here just after her mother passed away, and I hid the trophy where no one could find it. I wonder how she'll react when she sees it." He sighed once more and turned away from us, clearly done telling his tell.

With Inny in hand, Stella and I entered Erinn's house. After a few minutes of searching, we found her up in her bedroom, pacing back and forth. She looked up as Stella and I entered, though she could only see me. "What's up, Michael? She asked. "What's that trophy you've got there?" I just walked up to her and handed her the Inny. I watched as she read the inscription, mouthing the words. "An award for being an Inncredible Inntertainer…from the King of Stornway? To my father? I don't believe it! Patty's story was all true!" Putting the Inny down, she continued. "I don't understand, though. Why would Dad have given up all that to come here to sleep Angel Falls? What in the world was he thinking of?"

"I may be able to shed a little light on that," came a voice behind us. All three of us turned to see Flinn standing in the doorway.

"Grandpa?" Erinn asked, clearly surprised.

Flinn walked up to her and began explaining. "Edwinn made me promise not to say anything, so I've kept it a secret all these years, but I don't see that it matters now." He sighed. Clearly, sighing was a very common practice in this family. "Dear Erinn, you must remember how sickly you were as a child. Your poor mother was the same. In the normal course of things, you would have become sicker and sicker as you got older. Eventually, you would have died. We lost your mother at a young age to the same fate."

"But I'm perfectly healthy," Erinn protested. "I hardly even remember being sick anymore."

"That's because you were brought up on water from the falls here in the village," Flinn replied. "Angel Falls' water is famous for making people healthy and curing their ills."

Erinn put her head down as understanding washed over her. "So…what you're saying is that Dad gave up his inn in Stornway and came back here for my sake?"

"That's right," Flinn said. "Saving his daughter was far more important to him than his own ambitions."

Erinn looked back up with a sad look on her face. "But that's terrible!" she cried. "I stood in the way of my father and his dreams."

"He knew you'd feel that way," Flinn said. "That's why he didn't want you to know. But you're mature enough now to be told the truth."

Erinn nodded with her eyes focused on a distant point. "You know, I always wondered why he sometimes had that faraway look on his face," she said quietly. "Now I know…he did all that for me…" She quickly came back to her current setting and turned to me. "Um, Michael," she said. "It looks like I'm going to be leaving for Stornway. I don't know if I can be of any help to Patty, but I have to at least give it a try!" With her signature smile back on her face, she left the room, with Flinn following right behind her. Stella and I left a moment later and found Edwinn standing in the hall.

"You there, granddad?" Stella asked.

"I'm here," Edwinn replied. "I heard everything. I can't believe Erinn is going to follow my ambition in my place. She really has grown up. Now I have no regrets. I know that she'll succeed. She doesn't need me watching over her shoulder." His phantasmal form began to glow softly. "It looks like I'm ready to leave," he said, beginning to rise of the ground. "Thank you so much, my honored Guardian." He closed his eyes, and tilted his head back with a look of pure joy across his face. The glow from his being became unbearably bright and I had to close his eyes. When the glow had faded and I reopened my eyes, Edwinn was gone. He had gone to the heavens.

"He's gone!" Stella exclaimed.

"Really? I couldn't tell from the fact that he was no longer standing there," I replied sarcastically.

She turned to me, gave me a look that only made me smile, and continued talking. "You did it! So you are a Celestrian, after all. Well, a promise is a promise. I'll give you a lift back to the Observatory like we agreed, so say thanks to your lucky stars." She fluttered over to where the being formally known as Edwinn had stood. "Hang on to your horses a minute – shouldn't you be picking up that Benevolessence?"

My heart skipped a beat. "What…Benevolessence?" There was nothing but an empty floor under where Stella was flying.

"You can flapping see it, can't you?" Stella asked, almost pleading. "Don't tell me you can't see Benevolessence anymore!"

"I told you already: I don't see anything over there." Stella put her hand on her forehead and sighed. "Now I'm starting to wonder again…are you really a Celestrian, or are you pulling my chain?" She picked something off the ground, and handed it to me. I could feel the crystal in my hands, but I could not see it, which gave me a small headache.

Putting it into my bag and out of mind, I simply replied, "It doesn't matter. I need to sleep." With that, I went into my room, fell onto my bed, and fell asleep, leaving Stella by herself to find a place to sleep.

* * *

A few days later, the soldiers from Stornway had finished clearing the mountain pass. Erinn, Patty, Flinn, Stella, and I were all standing outside of Erinn's house. Ivor was off to the side, pacing back and forth with an angry expression of his face.

"I'll miss you, Grandpa," Erinn said. "You take care of yourself, won't you?"

Flinn smiled. "You, too. It'll be hard work making a living in a new town. Make sure you don't go working yourself sick."

Patty smiled and put her hand on Erinn's shoulder reassuringly. "I know you're worried about your little girl, but I'm gonna be around to help her out, so you just relax, okay?"

Flinn nodded. "That's good to know, Patty. You've helped to set an old man's mind at ease."

Erinn now turned towards Ivor, who was still fuming in the distance. "Ivor! Can I have a word?" she called.

Ivor turned towards us. "What do you want to talk to me for?" he nearly hissed. "You're leaving, so you obviously don't care." Poor kid was terribly heartbroken.

For a moment, it looked like Erinn came to the same conclusion, but it quickly passed. "I was wondering if you might take over the inn here for me. I don't have the heart to close it down, you see. You'll do it, won't you? I know I can count on you!"

I could see Ivor's anger melt away in an instant, but he tried to stay upset when he gave his answer. "I suppose I'll do it, but only to get Dad off my back with his nagging about me finding a job. I'm not doing it for you! Anyway, I bet I'll be so good at innkeeping that I'll soon trump your place over in Stornway!"

Erinn smiled. "And I wish you luck with it. Not that I'll let you get the better of me, of course!"

"Oh, yeah?" Ivor asked. "Sounds like we've got a competition on our hands!"

Erinn laughed and then turned to me. "Michael, I can't thank you enough for what you've done. It's amazing how you managed to find Dad's hidden trophy like that. You really are a mystery. I wouldn't be surprised if you turned out to be our Guardian after all…" She shook her head. "Ha ha! Listen to me and my wild imagination! I suppose you'll be heading off to your hometown now, won't you? If your journey brings you through Stornway, make sure you come and stay at my new inn, won't you?"

"Of course, Erinn," I agreed, smiling. "I can't wait to see how successful you'll become."

Erinn smiled back. "I'd better get going, then. Goodbye, everyone. And thank you for everything!" She looked to Patty, and they turned to leave the village. I smiled when I saw that Patty's hand was still resting on Erinn's shoulder. I knew Erinn would be successful. As I stood there watching them leave, Flinn went back inside, and Ivor headed off to tell his father about his new job.

"Time for us to make some tracks, too," Stella suddenly said. I looked at her. "You remember where the Starflight Express is, presumably?"

I nodded. "Of course I do," I said.

"No need to look so flapping pleased with yourself! I hardly expected you to forget. Come on, let's head for the pass!" said Stella. "Let's go!" And with that, she flew off towards the mountain pass at a high-speed.

"Oh, come on. That's not fair. I can't fly," I complained before running after her along the path.

I reached the pass in a fraction of the time it took me to reach it the other day. As I limped over to where Stella was waiting for me, I was panting and grabbing my side. "Please don't do that again," I pleaded.

"I thought you Celestrians were really strong."

"Strong? I just ran five miles non-stop in sandals carrying a bag. Don't talk to me about strength."

"Whatever. Anyway, here we are," she said. "All aboard!" Stella flew over to the door and opened it. Curious to see what the inside of the Starflight looked like, I followed her inside. As I had expected, there was a lot of yellow. A lot. And at the front was the control panel, covered with hundreds of different buttons. I really didn't envy anyone who had to learn what they all did. "So here we are on the Starflight," Stella announced as if giving a tour. "What do you reckon? Pretty swish, isn't she?" She turned towards the console. "I'd like to jazz her up a bit more, actually. It's still a bit on the plain side, wouldn't you say? I'm thinking pink rhinestones with gold around them. That'd really make the place look stellar, don't you think?"

"No."

She looked back at me and frowned. "…What? Not bothered about my amazing interior design ideas, eh? I suppose you just want to get going, do you?" I simply stared at her. "Fine, fine. No more hanging about. I'm pretty keen to get back to the Observatory and see how everything is, myself." She flew over to the console. "Here we go, then Iiiiit's TAKE-OFF TIME!" She slapped a button on the console. The Starflight groaned, rumbled, and went silent. "…Oh, flap. We have a problem. I thought it would fly if there was a Celestrian on board. I wonder what's wrong…" She sighed, then turned to me. "Hey, you couldn't see that Benevolessence before, could you, even though you reckon you're a Celestrian? That must be the problem!" She put her hands upon her hips. "I mean, it's a bit much to expect me to believe that Celestrians can just lose their halos and wings, isn't it?"

"Well, I guess you have a point," I agreed.

"Ha! Talk about being too honest for your own good!" She turned away. "Anyway, we don't have time for this. The Almighty won't be pleased if we hang around here while there's big stuff going on. Ooooiiii, Almighty, matey! You listening? We're in a right old gherkin here. Why don't you give us a flapping hand?"

I raised an eyebrow when I heard how Stella was speaking to the Almighty, though I chose not to comment about it. I still needed a ride home, and I decided I've been pressing my luck already.

However, Stella seemed to sense that something was wrong. "That's weird…" she mused. "He's probably too busy to notice us or something…" She turned back to me. "Alright, then, Michael, here's what we'll do: we'll follow the road to this Stornway place. When we get there, we'll help lots of people and get loads of Benevolessence. That should make that Almighty oaf prick his eyes up!"

I nearly choked when I heard how Stella talked about the Almighty this time around. But, I did think that her plan did make sense. As I stepped out of the Express, I felt somewhat relieved that I didn't have to leave the Protectorate yet. I rather enjoyed being down here, and I was happy that I will be able to explore more of it.

The sight of Stella zooming over my head snapped me out of my reverie. "Hey, wait up!" I yelled uselessly. "Great…" I murmured. "Time to start running again."

* * *

**So, yeah. That was a lot at once. Based on how things go, the lengths of the chapters from this point on should be somewhere between this chapter and the last.**

**Next chapter, Michael reaches Stornway, which he discovers has a very serious problem. Also, a new main character should be revealed next chapter.**

**If you find a typo, please don't hesitate to let me know so that I can fix it. I am only human, so I may make mistakes.**

**If you like what you read, please favorite, follow, and review. It means a lot.**

**D~F**


	4. Act 1 - Part 3: Social Problems

**Hello, everybody. DScribbleF is here with Chapter 4 for all of you. Sorry this update took longer than the other chapters, but you will not believe the week I just had. That International**** Baccalaureate Physics Standard Level exam was especially exhausting. Yes, it was as painful as it sounds. All I can say is may the Almighty bless circular motion and electrical circuits and may electromagnetic fields forever burn in agony.**

**Anyway, be grateful I managed to get this chapter out today. Until the summer begins, updates will probably become sparse, so if nothing happens to this story until mid-June, don't worry. I'm just really, really busy. Like, I can't even overstate how busy I will be.**

**But enough of the bad stuff. There's another great chapter for you to read in just a few lines, which brings into question why I'm still talking, preventing you from reading it. As I promised, Michael reaches Stornway and a new character is going to be introduced at the end.**

**Also, I just realized that I forgot to put the disclaimer in the last few chapters. I hope I don't get sued. Just in case...**

_**Dragon Quest IX **_**is property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.**

**What I do own are the characters that I make up, such as Michael and the new person at the end.**

**And now, time for reviews. I know I should stop stalling, but I like talking to you. See, now you feel guilty. Anyway, the reviews:**

**SodaPOP20: I'm happy that you enjoy the story so far.**

**Luckenhaft: You, sir, have earned my respect. And yes, that joke did end horribly. That doesn't stop it from being funny. Also, you'll see how things work out. It will be a little different from how things would normally work. I'll explain more at the end.**

**princessdaisy01: Fine! Here's the next chapter. Sorry to keep you waiting, your majesty. I hope this one is easier for you to read.**

**Finally, the moment we have all been waiting for: The story! (Mass applause erupts throughout the universe)**

* * *

_Act 1 - Part 3: Social Problems_

It was a peaceful afternoon in Western Stornway. The sun was high in the sky and the sounds of nature could be clearly heard. A Hammerhood and a She-Slime were debating whether that one cloud looked like a ball of cotton. Nearby, a Funghoul was picking flowers for his mid-afternoon snack.

Then we showed up.

"So help the Almighty, Stella!" I gasped. "If you ever fly off without me a third time, I will grab you out of the air and stuff you into my bag!" I had finally managed to catch up with Stella after she had abandoned me in the mountain pass, three miles away. Needless to say, I was not in a good mood.

"Well, _excuse me_ for wanting to get back to the Observatory as fast as possible. Don't you?" replied Stella sarcastically.

"Yes, but _I_ also want to get there while still being able to breathe," I countered.

"Whatever," Stella replied, clearly not caring. "Now let's go already. The Benevolessence isn't going to collect itself, you know."

"Fine. Whatever. I don't care," I said, pinching my nose in annoyance.

And on that happy note, we walked through the main gates and entered the city. The first thing I saw when we entered was a giant stone palace that commanded everyone's attention from the back of the city. Then there was the bustling marketplace with a number of stores, each filled with dozens of customers. Finally, something to my left caught my attention. There, outside of an inn, was Erinn and Patty. I would have gone to greet them, but they were talking with each other, and I didn't want to interrupt.

"Hey, Erinn, what's up?" I heard Patty ask Erinn. "Not nervous, are you, honey?"

From how intensely Erinn seemed to be studying the cobblestone below, it seemed she was. "I'm afraid so," she admitted. "I just can't see how a young girl like me can suddenly take over such a big and important inn. And surely everyone else will be thinking exactly the same thing…"

"Sure, maybe they will," Patty agreed, lifting up Erinn's chin so that she had to look at her. "But I trust my instincts – and you should, too!" I couldn't tell if Patty meant Erinn should trust her instincts, or Patty's instincts. "I know you've got what it takes, Erinn. Seriously, just quit worrying!"

Feeling a little better, Erinn simply replied, "If you say so."

Patty smiled, obviously pleased with her motivational tactics. "Now, time to introduce you to your new colleagues!" she announced, opening the door and practically shoving Erinn through it. "Hey, guys! I'm back! And I've brought a big, shiny ray of hope with me!" she called after her, before entering herself.

"This should be good for a laugh," Stella declared from in front of me. I almost lunged for her neck at that point, but there were people around, and I didn't want to look like a crazy man who was strangling air. That, and I needed her to take me back to the Observatory. "Come on, let's follow them in there and see how Erinn gets on." She glided over to the inn and quickly entered through the open door. I soon followed her, but not before taking about thirty deep breaths.

Inside, Erinn and Patty were standing before a table in the center of the room. Four others were in the room as well. After I quietly closed the door, a redheaded woman began speaking. "Honestly, Patty, what were you thinking?" By how Erinn was staring at the floor, I sensed that the effects of Patty's motivational speech had worn off. "This slip of a girl's going to run the inn, is she?" the redhead continued. "We're on the brink of closing as it is. Are you trying to finish us off?"

"Jeez, Ginny, calm down, will ya?" Patty asked. "D'you think I'd pick just any young thing off the street to run this place? Erinn here has innkeeping in her blood. She'll have us back on track before you can say 'welcome'!"

Ginny, not entirely convinced, continued doubting. "Didn't you say the same thing about me when you brought me here? And didn't you say you were going to find 'the one guy who can save this place for certain'? No offence, but I'm not too convinced this is the 'guy' you were talking about."

"Please, just give me a chance!" Erinn suddenly blurted out, taking everyone by surprise. "You won't find anyone who'll work harder than me. And I learnt all there is to know about innkeeping from my father!" This caught Ginny's interest.

"So your father was an innkeeper too, was he?" she asked. Erinn nodded. "And I suppose you're here to make your daddy proud, hm? Well, that's very admirable, but running an inn isn't as easy as showing up and promising to try hard, you know. And you can talk all you like about how much your father taught you, but we don't even know who your father was."

Patty gave Erinn a knowing smile. "There it is!" she said. "The challenge we've been waiting for. Now's the time to show her, honey!"

Erinn looked at Patty, confused. "Um…show what?" Then realization flashed across her eyes. "Oh! You mean this?" she said, bending down and pulling Edwinn's giant trophy out of her bag (I felt my bag become envious immediately).

To say that that had shocked Ginny and the other three would have been an understatement. "W-wait!" Ginny stuttered. "That trophy…it's…!"

Patty nodded with a smug smile on her face. "It sure is!" Patty said proudly. "Now tell me you doubt how good he was! And Erinn here shares the same Inncredible blood! Not bad, huh?" she asked.

What Patty got in response to her question made me laugh for some reason: Ginny and the others immediately dropped to the floor and began bowing towards Erinn. "Th-the Inncredible Inntertainer's daughter…oh…oh, my…!" Ginny said, clearly humbled.

Erinn just stood there, rather unsure on what to do. "Um, it's okay, really. There's no need to bow or scrape or anything."

Deciding I should make my presence known at this point, I went over to talk with Patty and Erinn. "Oh, Michael!" Erinn exclaimed, surprised to see me. "You came and visited just like you said you would! And so soon!" She looked down towards the floor again. "I'm afraid we've only just arrived ourselves, though. We're not quite ready to take any guests yet."

Patty turned to her. "Hey don't sweat it, sweetie. I'm sure Michael didn't come here to stay." Facing me, she continued. "I bet you came here 'cause you were worried about Erinn, huh? You wanted to see how she was getting along, right?"

"Of course," I replied. "I just happened to be passing through, and I wanted to make sure you were all right. After all, you helped me when I was in trouble and now I owe you big."

Erinn blushed. "It was nothing, really. Anyone would have done the same." I smiled, but didn't argue with her.

After a moment, Patty looked to me. "So, you're traveling all on your lonesome, huh, Michael?" I couldn't really deny that fact – Stella was invisible to her. "That sure is risky, honey. Why don't you hang around here for a while till the inn's open? Come by later and I bet I'll be able to hook you up with someone who could help you out, okay?"

"That would be great," I said. "When will the inn be open?"

Patty and Erinn just smiled at each other with a knowing look in their eyes. "Next time you visit, Michael," Erinn answered. "Now, go look around town while we get things set up."

I thanked them both, albeit a little concerned about how they just acted. As I left the inn, the six employees began to prepare the inn for guests, and I smiled as the door closed behind me.

As I walked away from the inn, Stella appeared in front of me. "'So, you're traveling all on your lonesome, huh, Michael?'" Stella mocked, clearly offended that I failed to mention her to Patty.

My smile grew at her ridiculousness. "You know they can't see you, Stella. It would be pointless and rather awkward to say that I had a companion already."

"Yeah? Well, don't expect any favors from me in the future," she retorted, looking away from me as I walked past. Needless to say, I was in a pretty good mood as I walked through the streets of Stornway.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the citizens of Stornway didn't share my current feeling towards the day. In fact, everyone seemed rather tense and a feeling of nervousness and concern permeated the crowds. Almost everyone had a sword or some other kind of weapon on their body, and, on several occasions, random people recommended that I leave Stornway immediately and to take care when traveling outside the city.

Curious to find out what was wrong, Stella and I hurried over to the message board that sat in the middle of town. When we reached the board, we found a large, official-looking notice tacked to it. I read what it said.

_A mysterious knight in black armor is terrorizing our town. If anyone is brave enough to fight him, come to the castle. Anyone will do._

_\- King Schott of Stornway_

"Sounds fun. What do you think?" I asked Stella.

"Sounds scary to me," she replied.

"That's really too bad, actually, because that's what we're going to do," I declared.

Ignoring Stella's various gestures of disagreement, I turned away from the sign and immediately ran into someone who was walking by, knocking me to the ground. Regaining use of my eyes, I saw that I had run into a seventeen-year-old girl with blinding red hair and an equally red dress. She had a wooden wand strapped over her shoulder.

I quickly got up and tried to apologize and offer her help off the ground, but she was already up and hurrying through the crowds towards the front half of the city. "What's her problem?" asked Stella. "She comes out of nowhere, knocks you down, and then doesn't even stop to see if you are okay! Some people are so rude!"

"I'm sure she had her reasons, Stella," I said, still staring at where the mysterious red-head had disappeared into the crowd. "Now let's hurry to the castle."

As we made to enter the palace gates, we were suddenly stopped by the guards who stood post. "State your business, wanderer!" one of them barked at me.

"I heard you had a little problem with a mysterious knight, and I decided to help you guys out," I explained.

"Ah!" said the guard. "Well, in that case, you'd better go inside the castle and find out more about it."

"Thanks," I said, walking past and entering the castle.

Once inside, my mind was blown away by the amazing interior: There was gold and thick carpeting everywhere. Even Stella seemed slightly impressed, whistling. "Now this is stellar!" she exclaimed. "I've definitely got more ideas for jazzing up the Starflight now!" It figures _that_ was where her mind went to first.

Looking around, I found a staircase that led upstairs. "The throne room must be up there," I said. "Let's go, Stella." I headed up the stairs, but stopped halfway when I realized that someone _wasn't_ following me. Turning around, I saw Stella was still fawning over the hundreds of valuables around the palace. She was clearly more impressed than I thought. Making sure there was absolutely no one in the general vicinity of us, I quickly ran down the stairs, grabbed Stella's arm, and pulled her up the stairs. She was clearly unhappy to have been torn away from the shiny things, but she didn't say anything about it.

At the top of the stairs, there was a second floor (much to no one's surprise) where a large door stood ajar. Through it was another large room. At the far end, on a raised platform, stood two thrones. The left one was empty, but, in the right one, sat a green-robed man with blond hair, a bushy beard and mustache, and a golden crown. He was clearly King Schott of Stornway. He was in a heated argument with a brown-haired young woman in a blue dress and a diadem.

"Och, Simona!" the king said. "How many more times do I have to tell you? You're not to go and see him!"

"And how many times do I have to tell you, Father?" Simona countered. "The Wight Knight keeps coming to town because he's looking for me! Don't you see? If I go to him, then everyone in Stornway can go about their lives in peace again!" I was surprised how similar the way the two royals spoke was to how the people on the streets spoke.

"You're being ridiculous, lassie!" the king retorted. "Do I look like the kind of man who'd sacrifice my daughter to that nefarious knight?"

"But, Father-!" Simona began to protest, but the King finally noticed I was standing by the door.

"Wheesht!" he told his daughter. "We have visitors. No more of your blethering! You there, approach the throne!" I walked across the room, trying to pretend that I didn't hear anything that they just said, and bowed in front of King Scott's throne. "I am King Schott, master of this castle, and monarch of Stornway. Did you come here because of the sign down in the town there?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," I answered.

"You did?" Schott exclaimed. "So you're going to help us defeat this Wight Knight character?" Again, I said yes. "Crivvens!" he exclaimed, again. "You want to take up the challenge to defeat the Wight Knight? Tell me your name!"

"I am Michael, Your Majesty."

"Well then," the King began to explain, "you'd better listen to what I have to say. Obviously, I have a reason for asking a passer-through to defeat this no-good knight." He looked lovingly at his daughter. "You see, that paddock only came and infiltrated my castle to try and snatch away my daughter!" Looking back at me, he continued. "He's had the nerve to demand that she be delivered to him at Loch Storn by a certain time. I'm convinced that it's some kind of fiendish trap. I reckon he's trying to weaken my castle's defenses by having me send my soldiers out to the loch with her. Then he'll attack! That's why I want to employ some likely lad – like your good self – instead."

Simona looked appalled at the thought. "Och, Father!" she cried out. "You can't possibly ask a stranger who's just passing through the place to do such a thing!"

Schott looked at her with a look that rivaled my own. "Wheesht!" he said. "I will not let that ruffian get the better of me!"

Simona looked at the floor in defeat. "It's very sad, Father…very sad that you won't even slightly consider my feelings on this." With that, she turned and ran out of the room, with the three of us watching her go, which made me realize that Stella was being unusually quiet now. She was probably scared of the Wight Knight.

After an awkward silence, Schott spoke again. "…Ahem. Sorry about that. My lass likes to do the right thing, and she seems to think the right thing is to go up there and meet him. Anyway, I'd be much obliged if you could away to Loch Storn and make sure he's not up to any trickery. Do you know how to get there?"

"Er…No, Your Majesty," I admitted.

"It's quite easy, actually," the king explained. "Once you leave Stornway, just head straight north until you cross the river. Loch Storn will be on the right. Now, be sure to give him a good thrashing if you find him, won't you? Just pummel the fiend into the ground!" I was shocked at the amount of hatred the king held for this Wight Knight, even if he did try to steal his daughter. The king, noticing the look on my face, calmed down a little. "Naturally, there'll be a braw reward waiting for you when you get back. I'm putting all my hopes on you!"

"I will try my best, sir. Worry not," I said, turning to make my leave, but the king stopped me for one last thing.

"You travel alone, is that correct?" he asked.

Glancing at Stella, I replied, "Yes, Your Majesty."

The king thought for a moment, then continued. "Now, I don't want to discourage you, but I feel that I should warn you that the Wight Knight has taken out dozens of my soldiers at once. I worry that you will have some difficulty facing him by yourself."

"What would you have me do, Your Majesty?" I asked, understanding his concern.

"That depends," he answered. "Are you mostly a physical or magical attacker?"

I thought about that for a moment. Being classified as a minstrel, I could use both physical and magical attacks. However, after reflecting upon it, I decided that I use my sword much more than I use my magic. "Physical," I answered.

"In that case, I would recommend that you find a magical attacker who would be willing to travel with you. I think a mage would do," the king decided. "Yes, I think that would be best."

A mage? Great. Now I have to go find someone who can use magic _and_ is willing to risk their life. That should be so easy in a town of people who are scared half to death when the Wight Knight is mentioned. "As you wish, Your Majesty," I agreed, hiding all of my internal strife this will cause me.

"Good," the King said. "Well, with that out of the way, I feel a little better about this. Good luck to you." With that, he dismissed me.

When we were back outside the castle, and out of sight from everyone, Stella finally started talking again. "You heard the king. You need a mage if you're going to challenge the Wight Knight, and since we don't have one, we can't. Let's find someone else to help."

"Stella," I began to explain, "there is no one else to help. Everyone here as the same problem, and to solve it, we need to fight the Wight Knight, and to do that, we need to find a mage."

"Where are we going to find a mage is this place?" Stella asked. "It's not like there's a place where we can just go and find one. Oh, wait…"

When Stella said that, I remembered something important. "Patty!" I exclaimed, much to Stella's disappointment. "She said that if I ever needed someone to travel with, she was the person to ask."

"Fantastic," Stella said, emotionlessly. "Watch as I struggle to contain my excitement."

I ignored her. "But, will there be a mage there?" I thought out loud. "I mean, I don't even know if they're open yet. I guess there's only one way to find out. Come on, Stella. Let's head to Erinn's"

"Yay," she said, sulking. I smiled, and headed off towards the inn.

* * *

(No One's POV)

Five minutes after running into Michael, the red-headed girl entered the inn. Looking around the inn, which was surprisingly crowded for having re-opened five minutes ago, she hurried over to the front desk, where Patty was standing by herself with her back turned. Taking a deep breath, the redhead called her attention. "Hey, Patty."

Patty jumped and, having recognized the voice, quickly spun around. "Jessica, honey, is that ya?"

"Yeah," Jessica sighed.

"What are ya doing here?" Patty asked, now concerned for her friend. "Weren't ya traveling with those other guys, honey?"

"Yeah, I was," Jessica replied.

"Was?" Patty repeated. "As in, ya were, but aren't anymore?"

"Exactly."

"What happened, honey?" Patty asked, starting to get impatient with Jessica's lack of an explanation.

"Well," Jessica finally began, "they left me because they didn't like me."

"Why not?" Patty asked, really getting tired of this.

"They were afraid of...uh...my differences, just like everyone else," Jessica explained. "You should know this already."

Relieved that they were finally getting somewhere, Patty continued questioning Jessica. "Why would they be afraid of you?" Patty asked. "Ya can still use magic, just like all mag-" Patty stopped when she saw the annoyed look on Jessica's face. "I'm sorry, honey. I'm sure this must be difficult for you."

"It is," Jessica confirmed, also relieved that they were getting somewhere. "So that comes to why I'm here. If you couldn't tell, I have nowhere to go…again. So, do you have a room for me?"

"Of course, honey!" said Patty. "There will always be a room for ya here. How long d'you think you'll stay?"

Sighing, Jessica answered, "I'm thinking for…for a long time. I don't know what I want to do anymore, so I'm just going to stay here until I figure it out."

Patty gave her friend a concerned look and a room key. "Here ya go, Hon'," she said. "It's the same room as always. Ya stay as long as ya want, alright honey."

Forcing a smile, Jessica replied, "Thanks, Patty. Let's hope things get better."

* * *

**Well, there you go. The fourth chapter of Michael's story. I hope it was a good one.**

**Also, here's our new character: Jessica. If you can't tell what her role in this story is going to be yet, I really can't help you. And that brings me to another thing. Now, I know that, when playing through the game normally, at this point, the hero gets all three of their party members at once. However, that is not how this story is going to work. Instead of pulling three brand new characters out of thin air, I'm going to stagger their appearances, which will give me time to actually get some characterization done. If you don't like that, and I don't know why you wouldn't, I'm sorry that's how I'm doing it.**

**As always, please point out any typos, errors, or inconsistencies that you find. I scoured this chapter for any, but, as always, I am only human.**

**If you enjoyed what you read, please follow, favorite, and review. It means a lot.**

**Until next time, whenever that may be, this has been DScribbleF.**


	5. Act 1 - Part 4: The Wight Knight

**Time to celebrate, everyone! I'm finally back with another chapter for all of you to enjoy. Yes, yes, I'm sorry. I know that I had four updates in a month then nothing for the next month. But I have an excuse! That excuse would be that the end of 11th grade is really hard. Not even joking, I had to write five essays, make two movies, give five presentations, and then take seven final exams. At least it's summer vacation now, and I can chip away at my mountain of summer homework at my leisure.**

**But enough about me. Let's talk about the story. There's tons of humor, tons of drama, The Look makes an appearance, an epic battle scene, and, at the end, Jessica's "big" secret is revealed. (Note how big is in quotation marks.)**

**Anyway, here's the boring legal part that we all need to see:**

_**Dragon Quest IX **_**is property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.**

**What I do own are the characters that I make up, such as Michael and Jessica.**

**There. Now we just need to get through the reviews, and then you can start the next chapter.**

**Sir. nick of dragons: I'm happy that you approve of my decisions. Not that you had any choice in the matter.  
**

**Princessdaisy01: Shh! You're going to spoil it, maybe... (*wink wink*)**

**Luckenhaft: Funny story, I hadn't heard of that character from Dragon Quest VIII until long after I had already created Jessica in my own game.**

**Yurei Hanatsuki: Thank you for the smiley face. Oh, and you can take Wormwood Creek, but I want Upover.**

* * *

_Act 1 - Part 4: The Wight Knight_

(Michael's POV)

The sun had already begun its long descent towards the horizon when Stella and I returned to the Quester's Rest. Stella had thankfully stopped complaining about our mission, but I could tell she was still unhappy about it. Not that I was going to let that bother me, or anything.

Now, given that fact that Erinn had arrived in town only a few hours ago, I was not expecting what I saw when I walked through the front door. During the time Stella and I were exploring Stornway, the inn had clearly opened for business and apparently had become the most popular place in town to stay, as there was now an immense crowd of people inside the inn. I was so surprised, in fact, that I turned around and walked back outside.

"What's the matter, Michael?" asked Stella, who had stayed outside waiting for me.

"Nothing…," I replied, scratching my head while staring at the building. "Just making sure we're at the right place."

"Why? This is clearly Erinn's inn. What else could it be?" Stella asked, annoyed.

"I don't know. It's just weird."

"What's weird?"

"Erinn's inn is already super busy," I explained.

"Wha…How? It must have just opened!" Stella exclaimed.

"I know. I don't get it either."

"Well, she clearly has a gift when it comes to innkeeping. If that's the case, then I guess she'll be too busy to help us find a mage. Let's go somewhere else."

"Nice try, Stella," I replied, easily seeing through her words. "Besides, it was Patty who said she could help us find partners, not Erinn."

"Oh, yeah… How could I forget," Stella mumbled, upset that her latest attempt at stopping me was foiled. "Well, you better go back inside and see what Patty can do."

I smiled. "Thank you, Stella. Now, let's try this again." Turning around, I walked back into the building, now knowing what to expect. After fighting my through the crowd, I finally managed to reach the front counter, where Erinn and Patty were standing. Erinn was swamped with customers, so she didn't notice my arrival. Patty, however, was just standing there doing nothing.

"Hey there, Michael! Did I welcome you to my Party Planning place yet?" she greeted rather enthusiastically.

"Party Planning place?" I repeated, rather confused.

"Yeah. This is the place to hook up with new party members," Patty explained.

"Oh. That's perfect since that's exactly what I need."

"Really? And are you looking for any specific kind of person?"

"Yes, actually. I'm in need of a mage. Do you happen to have anyone who's interested?" As soon as I said that, I saw something flash across Patty's eyes, but I couldn't tell what it was.

"A mage, huh?" Patty repeated. "Well, there just happens to be a mage staying here at the moment. She's a friend of mine, and she might be interested in joining you on your journey."

"Really?" I exclaimed, not believing my luck. "Can you go ask her now? I'm kind of on a time constraint."

"Of course, honey," she answered. But as she was leaving, she paused and turned back to me. "Actually, there is one thing I should mention about her."

"What?"

"She's not exactly a normal mage," Patty explained. "She's a little different than others."

I smiled. "I think a can handle 'a little different.'"

"Yeah? Then wait right here while I get her for you honey," she said in a hurry before running through a back door just as quickly.

'Huh,' I thought to myself. 'She seems a little too excited for this kind of thing. I wonder why.'

* * *

(Jessica's POV)

I was lying in bed staring at my ceiling. I wasn't trying to fall asleep as much as I was trying to relax, but that was rather difficult because someone started thundering up the staircase. Annoyed, I grabbed a pillow and pushed it over my ears, trying to block out the sound. Thankfully, it stopped after a few seconds, but just as I was about to get back to relaxing, a deafening pounding from the other side of the door to my room shattered the silence.

"Jessica! Jessica! Are you there, honey?" I heard Patty scream through the door.

"Yeah… Hang on," I answered back. If Patty was this excited for something, I figured I may as well check it out and see what's up. I slowly rolled off my bed, stretched, straightened out my dress, grabbed my wand, and walked over to the door. I opened it to find a super hyper and impatient Patty pacing outside my door. "What is it, Patty?" I asked, hoping it was something good.

"I have some great news for ya! I found someone who'd be willing to let you join their party!" Patty exclaimed, clearly proud of herself.

"I doubt it. It will just end the same way all the other times had, with me coming back here all alone," I decided.

"Not this time, honey. I already told him-"

"What did you tell him!?" I snapped suddenly.

Patty seemed to be a little taken aback by my outburst. "Nothing. I only told him that you're a little different, honey."

"And…?"

"He says he doesn't care about it," Patty concluded.

"I see. And he's waiting downstairs now?"

"Yup."

"Well, I suppose I may as well go and see him. Just let me grab my things."

"No problem, honey," Patty replied. It looked like she was struggling to not break out in celebration. I shook my head, went back into my room and grabbed my bag, which held some food and medicine. Nothing fancy.

"Okay, Patty. Let's go."

* * *

(Michael's POV)

While waiting for Patty to return, I was resting at one of the tables in the inn. I was grateful for this moment where I could close my eyes and just relax. It seems like only yesterday that I was fighting the Hexagoon. Wait, it was yesterday. Never mind.

I was also grateful for the fact that I didn't have to listen to Stella's complaining for a little while, since she was waiting for me outside.

"What's taking you so flapping long!?"

Of course. I opened my eyes and, lo and behold, Stella was fluttering in the air in front of me. Keeping my voice low to not attract anyone else's attention, I replied, "What's your problem now, Stella?"

"You're taking way too flappin' long. If we have to do this, I want to get it done with as soon as possible. So hurry up!"

I sighed and looked out the window. "Look, the Wight Knight isn't coming until sundown, and as the sun is still rather high in the sky, I think we have plenty of time to wait. As it were, Patty is getting a mage for us now. They should be here any moment."

"Good. I'm going to wait in here with you until we're all ready to go."

"Great. Whatever. I don't care. Oh, thank the Almighty: there's Patty now. Let's go see what's up." I walked over to the counter where Patty was waiting and asked, "So, does she want to come?"

"She's willing to give you a chance, honey," Patty answered cheerfully. Then her voice suddenly became lower. "But remember, she's a little different from other mages, and she feels terrible about herself sometimes because of it. So, be kind to her, will ya, hon'?

"Of course, Patty," I replied.

"Good. Now let me bring her out here for you." Patty turned around, opened the door behind her and spoke to someone on the other side. "He's ready to see you now. Come on out and meet him, honey."

Patty stepped to the side, and there, standing in the doorway, was the very-red girl I ran into earlier. "Michael, this is Jessica. Jessica, this is Michael," Patty introduced.

"You!" we both shouted in surprise once we saw each other.

"Um…" Patty said, rather confused. "Do you guys know each other?"

"We kind of ran into each other earlier," I explained.

"It's a long story, Patty. Don't worry about it," Jessica added.

"I won't," Patty replied. "Well, my job here's done. Good luck on your travels, honey!"

I thanked Patty for her help and left the inn. Outside, I turned towards Jessica and said, "Let's get going. It's almost sundown."

"Wait, you want to go now?" Jessica asked, surprised. "Shouldn't we wait until morning before we go anywhere?"

"Nope," I answered, already heading towards the gate out of town. "I – we – have something we have to do tonight."

"Fine," Jessica said, following me. "What is it?"

"Have you heard of the Wight Knight?"

"Yeah, I think everyone here has. Why?"

A small smile came to my lips. "We're going to meet him on behalf of King Schott."

Jessica stopped where she stood. "What!?" She screamed that so loudly that a few nearby She-Slimes ran away. "Are you crazy?"

"Possibly."

"That's a terrible idea! Do you know how powerful he is? He took out who squadrons of soldiers!"

Stella, who Jessica couldn't see, appeared next to me. "Yes! Someone who agrees with me! Come on, Michael. It's two against one here. Give it up."

I happily ignored Stella. "Look, Jessica, you don't have to come if you don't want to. You can go back to Stornway whenever you want. As for me, I'm going to meet the Wight Knight. It's your choice."

Jessica just stood there for a moment, thinking. She looked at me, then back at Stornway, then back at me. "Ah, why not," she ultimately decided. "I don't have anything better to do. I mean, who knows? We might actually survive this."

"Oh, come flapping on!" Stella yelled.

"That's the spirit," I said to Jessica. "Now, let's hurry over to Loch Storn. Night won't wait for us forever."

"Lead the way, Michael."

* * *

As we walked towards Loch Storn, we started talking about ourselves. Jessica started. "Well, I lived my whole life in the eastern town of Coffinwell until a few years ago, when I left to go adventuring. It's a nice town full of nice people, and my parents still live there."

"That sounds nice," I replied.

"It is. Although, I haven't heard from them in while; but I guess that's probably because the border between Stornway and Coffinwell is closed right now."

"You're probably right. I wouldn't worry too much about it," I supported.

"Thanks. And what about you? Where are you from?"

"Where am I from?" I repeated. "That's a good question. I suppose I never really had a home. I've always been traveling from town to town." I never liked lying to people, but I felt I had to at this point. "However, if I had to choose a place to call home, I'd probably say Angel Falls."

"I see," Jessica replied. "And what do you do during your travels?"

"I go around and help as many people as I can. What about you? What do you do on your adventures?"

"I just go around occasionally helping out other adventurers for a little while," Jessica explained. Then a suspicious smile came to her face. "Nothing too mage-r."

I stopped right where I was and twitched. Stella, on the other hand, began laughing uncontrollably. "The look on your face right now," she managed to get out between laughs. "It's totally priceless. I wish you could see it."

I quickly gave Stella the Look, which caused her to shut up almost immediately. Then I turned towards Jessica, who was clearly struggling to contain her own laughter. "I-I'm sorry," she managed to get out. "I couldn't help it. It was too good of an opportunity."

I just rubbed my temples and turned away. 'She clearly feels terrible about herself,' I thought to myself as I quickly hurried away.

"Hey, wait for me, Michael! I said I'm sorry!"

* * *

When we reached Loch Storn, the sun was just above the water, turning everything a beautiful shade of orange. An island could be seen in the distance. The main area we were standing in was a grassy field with large cliffs on either side.

It wasn't quite night yet, so we decided to sit under one of the cliffs and rest while we waited for the Wight Knight to appear.

After a while, Stella appeared again. "This is where the Wight Knight's supposed to be waiting for the princess, right?" Stella asked. "I can't see head nor tail of him. Surely he's not going to stand us up!" She turned to me. "What do you reckon, Michael? Want to give it a bit longer?" I nodded, so that I didn't catch Jessica's attention. "Whatever. I needed some time to relax anyway."

Sometime later, after the moon had risen into the sky and all the monsters except the Drackmages and Winksters had fallen asleep already, Stella reappeared again. "Huh!" she said indignantly. "Still no sign of him! What sort of knight would stand up a lady in a place like this? Why don't we go back to Stornway? We should go back and tell the king the Wight Knight didn't turn up."

"Fine," I agreed. I turned to Jessica, who had also fallen asleep at this point, and started to wake her up. "Wake up, Jessica. We're going back to Stornway now."

She started to stir. "Mm-kay. The Wight Knight hasn't shown up yet, has he?"

"Nope," I answered. "I don't know where he-" I froze.

Stella, who was a distance behind me, suddenly stopped. "…Why do I get the feeling that, if I turn around, he'll be standing right there?" I heard her ask.

"Michael, what's wrong?" Jessica asked, having fully awakened after seeing what must have been pure terror on my face.

Behind me, Stella slowly turned around and turned deathly pale. "Y-y-y-yikes!" she cried out. "I w-was only flapping j-joking!"

Jessica, now fully concerned, followed my gaze to the top of the opposing cliff, where, mounted on a black horse, covered head to foot in black armor, was a knight.

The Wight Knight.

Jessica quickly jumped up and hid behind me, and Stella disappeared to wherever she disappears to. At the same time, the Wight Knight descended from the cliff, jumping from rock to rock on his way down. As he landed directly in front of us, we slowly backed away from him.

"Who are you?" he asked in a deep, dark voice. "I have no business with you. Where is the princess?" He reached behind him and pulled out a huge lance, which he pointed at us. "Release the princess! Release my beautiful princess!" he ordered. His faceplate suddenly flipped open by itself, revealing nothing but a skull with glowing red eyes beneath it. My blood chilled at the sight of it and Jessica let out a tiny scream. He then began to charge at us.

I immediately pushed Jessica out of the way and leapt to the side myself, barely dodging the thundering hooves of the Wight Knight's horse. He quickly pulled his horse around and began another charge towards me; this time holding out is lance. Ready for him, I lifted my shield and readied my sword. When he passed by, he hit my shield with such force that my whole arm went into shock, but I ignored it and swung my sword with my other arm, landing a hit on the Wight Knight's passing leg, creating a hollow ringing sound.

A hollow ringing sound? Was the Wight Knight nothing more than an armored skeleton? If so, then this battle might be a little more difficult than I had thought.

As the Wight Knight made his third charge at me, I realized something was missing. "Hey, Jessica!" I called out. "Anytime you want to help out and throw some magic at this guy, it would be greatly appreciated."

Jessica, who had been petrified with fear this whole time, finally came back to reality. "What? Oh, sorry! I'll try to help out a little more." She immediately followed this by holding her wand up and launching a small fireball from it, which landed a direct hit on the Wight Knight's torso, causing it to become a bright red as it became superheated. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I jumped up and slashed across the front of the hot, soft metal, leaving a massive dent across it.

The Wight Knight, now facing two immediate threats, filled his lance with energy, spun it around a few times and attacked randomly four consecutive times. Three of those times, it attacked me, knocking me back a bit, but otherwise leaving me relatively unscathed. The fourth time, the lance was directed at Jessica, who barely managed to raise her shield in time to defend the attack, the force of which threw her back a few feet.

At first, I was worried about Jessica, but when she stood back up, I could see that she was more annoyed than she was hurt. Before the Wight Knight could attack again, Jessica held up her wand again. Suddenly, the air around the Wight Knight shimmered and warped before igniting in a small explosion, knocking him back and shooting dust everywhere.

Taking advantage of the opportunity once again, I ran up and landed a few more hits across his armor, then got out of the way as Jessica cast another spell, this time creating a large chunk of ice in the sky, which fell on the Wight Knight and shattered, scattering ice all over the field and really pissing him off, but otherwise appearing to have no effect on him.

Enraged, the Wight Knight pulled back to the other side of the field, charged his lance with electricity, and began charging straight at me. Getting real tired of this, I raised my sword and shield and ran at the Wight Knight as well. On my way, however, I slipped on a leftover chunk of ice and fell on my back, stunned. My sword had fallen a few feet away.

Within moments, the Wight Knight had reached me and had reared his horse back, ready to crush me. I held my shield up in the hope it would be able to take the impending impact.

As the horse's legs began to drop, I heard Jessica scream, "Hang on to something!" Looking towards her, I saw that she had summoned a small whirlwind, which was flying across the field. I quickly leapt for my sword and thrust it into the ground as the miniature tornado flew past, almost carrying me off. The Wight Knight wasn't so lucky, getting caught in the twister and thrown across the field into the opposite cliff. He fell on the ground with a loud _thump_.

After a moment, he started moving again. I pulled my sword out of the ground as he struggled to rise, but he only managed to get to a kneeling position with his head hung in defeat. "I don't understand," he said. His voice was still deep, but it wasn't as dark as it was earlier. "Why would the princess send you in her place? Why has my beloved Mona forsaken me? Does our promise no longer mean anything to her?"

I looked at Jessica, who had walked up next to me, and saw that she looked as confused as I did. Mona? The princess of Stornway was Simona. Stella suddenly appeared next to me, also confused. "Any idea what he's on about, Michael? Who's this Mona? The princess in Stornway's called Simona, right? Not Mona. This knight's got a nail loose, if you ask me."

The Wight Knight turned to Stella. "Is, is that really true?" he asked. Stella jumped a mile upon being addressed, and Jessica just looked more confused.

"Who is he talking to, Michael?" she asked. I shrugged.

"Yikes!" Stella screamed. "How come you can see me? You gave me a right flapping shock there!"

The Wight Knight ignored her. "You have to tell me," he desperately pleaded to us. "Is the girl in the castle really not Princess Mona?"

Jessica and I glanced at each other, than back at the Knight. "No," I replied. "She is Simona, Princess of Stornway."

He looked down to the ground, completely defeated. "Oh, woe is me!" he cried out. "So she wasn't my princess after all. Now you mention it, she wasn't wearing the royal necklace of Brigadoom…" He stood up fully and turned towards the water. After a long pause, he continued. "…I was in a very deep sleep…Then the earthquake happened, and I awoke in this strange land feeling as though I had been released from some kind of…prison…I'd completely lost my memory, so much so that I didn't even remember who I was anymore. Then I saw that princess and it all came rushing back to me. Memories of Mona and I." He turned back to us. "I remembered that I am the Wight Knight. And I remembered that Mona is the princess of my homeland of Brigadoom. Princess Mona and I had sworn undying love for each other and were to be wed."

"So he went and confused Princess Simona for Princess Mona?" Stella asked. "Blimey! They must be the splitting images of each other…" I subtly nodded in agreement.

The Wight Knight looked past us into the distance. "Hmm…" he murmured. "I must do the honorable thing. I must return to the castle and apologize for my mistake."

"Uh-oh," Stella said. "I'd try to talk him down from that if I were you, Michael. It'll probably just make things worse." It seemed Jessica shared the same feeling.

The Wight Knight, who had started listening to Stella again, replied, "Make things worse? Yes, I fear you may be correct. Then perhaps you could take a message on my behalf?"

Jessica, who probably assumed that the Wight Knight was flat out crazy at this point, answered for us. "Sure we can. What do you want us to say?"

The Wight Knight looked at her. "Tell them I won't go near the castle again. I'm sure the real Princess Mona will be waiting for me back in Brigadoom. All I have to do now is find my way home." He climbed back on his horse and rode out of the Loch – thankfully – away from Stornway.

Once he was out of sight, Jessica and I both released a sigh of relief. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she assured me. "I'm more worried about you. You took a lot of hits out there."

"Don't worry. I'm a lot stronger than I appear."

"Yeah, I saw. You looked pretty deadly with that sword."

"Thanks," I replied. "So, what do you think of this whole ordeal, with Princess Mona and Brigadoom and whatnot?"

"I don't know," she answered. "I've never even heard of a place called Brigadoom.

"Me neither. Maybe someone back in Stornway has heard of it. We can ask around after we report to the king."

"Sure," she agreed. "But now, I just want to go back to the inn and rest. I'm super exhausted and just happy to still be alive."

"Yeah. It's a good thing we had your magic. I would have been toast without it."

"I'm just happy I could help," she replied.

"What magic did you use anyway? Wait, don't tell me. I want to see I can still remember what they were called." It had been a long time since I had studied the various types of magic, so it was a little difficult for me to recall what each spell was called. "Let's see," I began. "You used Frizz, then Bang and Crack, and at the end you used Woosh."

Jessica was staring at me with a curious look on her face as I said this, but she didn't say anything. She seemed interested in what I was going to say next.

"Wait a sec…" I said as I remembered one last small detail. "How are you able to use Woosh? Mages shouldn't be able to learn that spell. Just minstrels and luminaries." After I said that, I noticed that Jessica started to frown a little. "What's wro- Oh…" I had a sudden realization. "Is that how you're different from other mages? You know how to use wind magic?"

With a cautious look on her face, all she said in response was "Yup."

"And you feel terrible about yourself because of it?"

Again, she seemed wary of the current situation. "Uh...yes."

For a moment, I stood there in silence, trying to comprehend what I had just heard. Failing to do so, I instead bursted out loudly in confusion. "That's it!? That's preposterous!"

Jessica seemed concerned about my outburst. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Why would you feel bad about having an extra spell in your arsenal?

"Uh...Well...Everyone else I had traveled with had said that...um...I was weird and messed up when they found out about...it. I guess most people just didn't want to deal with...it," she answered.

"Seriously!?" I exclaimed, not noticing the odd way in which she was speaking. I could barely believe what I was hearing as it was. "Are some people really such jerks that they don't even know a great opportunity when they see one!? ...How did you even learn wind magic in the first place?"

"I…don't know," she replied. "I was just practicing magic one day and I suddenly used Woosh. I have no idea where it came from."

"Huh. Anyway, you shouldn't feel so bad about yourself because of this. In fact, you should feel lucky to have this ability."

"Really?" Jessica asked.

"Absolutely," I answered.

"So...you're not going to...freak out on me or...anything because of this?" she asked.

"Of course not!" I replied. "Now let's get back to Stornway. I'm tired."

Jessica smiled, seeming content with herself. "Sure thing, Michael. And let's hurry – sunrise is going to be in a couple of hours."

* * *

**UPDATE: Alright people. Here are the facts. Originally, the huge reveal of Jessica being able to use wind magic was a whole lot more dramatic than where it currently stands. Considering what it was, that obviously didn't work very well, and many of you readers had told me how you felt about it. As it was, I agreed with most of you guys. As such, I have decided to come back to this chapter and revise that scene so it isn't so ridiculously overdramatic. The overall result of the scene is the exact same, so don't worry about having missed some critical information. It's just greatly toned down to a more realistic level. Anyway, I'll talk more about this in Part 9 of Act 1, which will be the next chapter uploaded after I make this update. I'll see you guys then.**

**And there you have it, folks: Part 4 of Act 1. I do hope it was worth the wait. And yes, I know. Jessica's secret was super anti-climatic. Or was it? (*laughs evilly*)**

**Before I go, I want to announce one last thing****. In this chapter, Michael met his first partner, Jessica. What I'm proposing is this: I have two other people planned to join his party in the future. I already know who they are, what their vocations are going to be, and what they're personalities are like. What I don't have planned is how they're going to be added into the story. So, what I'm thinking of doing is allowing you, the readers, to make suggestions in your reviews on how either of these two characters will be introduced to Michael (One suggestion per review, please). If I like your suggestion better than what I have already planned, I will add it to the story. Ultimately, there can be any number of winners to this contest. There may easily be none, or perhaps a lot of people all came up with several variations of an excellent idea. Oh, and one last thing: I'm purposely not telling you anything about these characters, so you will have to make blind guesses while writing your suggestions. So, you could easily get their gender or vocation wrong. If you want to take part in this, I wish you luck.**

**And, as always, please mention any typos, errors, or inconsistencies that you find in the chapter.**

**If you enjoyed what you read, or if you want to take part in my "contest," please favorite, follow, and review. It means a lot.**

**Until next time, this has been DScribbleF.**


	6. Act 1 - Part 5: Neither Here Nor Zere

**Here's another chapter for all of you. I worked hard all week to get this one ready for you for the weekend. And let me tell you about the week that I have had. At the beginning of the week, I had to walk through the rain three days in a row to go to driver's training. Then my bedroom got invaded by a bunch of ants. Then I had surgery on my lower back. And yet, despite all this, through all the pain and suffering I have endured, I have persevered and gotten out another chapter for all of you to enjoy.**

**Anyway, this chapter has a bit of everything. Sleeping, eating, screaming, shopping, learning, singing, walking, comforting, fighting, remembering, and many other assorted verbs. And for all of you who were somewhat disappointed by Jessica's anti-climatic secret last chapter, please have faith in your author. I know what I'm doing, and what I'm doing makes sense.**

**Once again, here is the simple legality that I need to include, lest I want hordes of lawyers knocking at my front door tomorrow:**

_**Dragon Quest IX **_**is property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.**

**What I do own are the characters that I make up, such as Michael and Jessica.**

**All we have left to do now before we can start the chapter is to go through the reviews. Here we go!**

**Yurei Hanatsuki: Yes, yes. I'm going to be a senior. A senior taking beyond-college-level classes in high school. It should definitely be fun. And I'm glad we could come to an agreement.**

**princessdaisy01: Thank you. As for your suggestion, this chapter will show why it really can't happen that way.  
**

**Casamora: Worry not. I have a plan for Jessica that will be revealed in a few chapters. Granted, I don't think anything in this story will be as dark as what you have mentioned, but I digress. As for my favorite vocations, I can't say what my four favorite ones are because that would be a spoiler to the story, but besides those, I really like Luminaries because they attack by dancing and Rangers because they summon wolves to attack for them.**

**Luckenhaft: You're right. There may be another guy on the team. There may also not be another guy on the team. We will have to wait and see, won't we?**

* * *

_Act 1 - Part 5: Neither Here Nor Zere_

(Michael's POV)

The next morning, I woke up a little while before Jessica did. Not wanting to wake her, I quietly got dressed and began packing my bag. While doing this, Stella appeared next to me, stretching. "About time you woke up," she said. "The sun's already been up for hours."

"I know, Stella," I replied. "But we're both exhausted from our battle with the Wight Knight last night."

"Whatever," she shrugged. "I don't know what you were so worried about earlier. The Wight Knight wasn't that scary or that hard to beat."

I just smiled and shook my head. "Whatever you say, Stella." After that, there was a small period of silence where I worked on sorting the contents of my bag. Being essentially bottomless, it took longer than one would think to organize everything I was carrying.

Soon after I finished, Jessica began stirring. She sat up in her bed and stretched, yawning at the same time. "Morning," she mumbled sleepily.

"Good morning," I replied.

She got out of bed and walked to the window. "What time is it?" she asked. "The sun is already really high in the sky."

I looked at the clock on the wall. "About eleven thirty. We can go get breakfast as soon as you're ready to go."

"Okay. Just give me sec."

After Jessica finished getting ready, we had a quick breakfast, courtesy of Erinn, and went back into town towards the castle. At the front gate, the guards recognized me from the day before. "Hey," one of them called. "It's great to see that you're still alive."

"Um… Thanks, I think…" I replied. "It's great to see that you're still alive, too…" I heard Jessica stifling laughter behind me.

"Yeah, well, you better head on inside," the guard told us. "The king is expecting you."

"Thanks," I said, already heading inside with Jessica right behind me.

When we reached the throne room, both thrones were now occupied. King Schott still sat in the right one, but now there was a woman with short blonde hair in a purple dress sitting in the left one, no doubt the queen. This intrigued me. How could Simona have brown hair if both her parents had blonde hair? Very interesting indeed.

It seemed we had walked into the middle of a conversation, so we just stood quietly in the back and listened as Simona spoke to her parents. "Mother, Father…" she began, "I've decided that I'm going to give answer to the knight's demands."

The queen began sobbing into her hands. "Oh, no, Simona, please!"

King Schott looked at her, annoyed. "There's nothing to cry about, you silly besom!" he said. I was surprised to hear him talk to his wife so rudely. "I'll never allow her to go. Ach, they'll be the death of me, these two…" That's when he noticed Jessica and I standing in the doorway. The queen and Simona, seeing his distraction, noticed us as well. "Ah!" he said. "It's you! I've been waiting on the edge of my throne for you to come back. Hurry closer, now!" We approached the thrones and bowed. "It's good to see you back with us, Michael. And who is this with you?"

"I'm Jessica, sir," Jessica responded. "I'm Michael's partner."

"Ah, good, so you did follow my advice, Michael," said King Schott. "So tell me, what news is there of the Wight Knight?" We quickly recounted all the events from the night before, from the time we waited before the battle to the conversation we had with the Wight Knight afterwards. After we finished, the king sat quietly for a second before speaking again. "Och! So you're telling me he just lost his memory and mistook my Simona for his fiancée? And he told you he's going off to find Brigadoom now, so he won't be bothering us here again?"

"Yes, your highness," I answered.

All of a sudden, he rose from his throne and exploded in anger. "And you believed him!?" he bellowed. Jessica and I both took an involuntary step back in surprise. "Sounds like a ham-a-haddie to me! The blethering skite can't be trusted!"

"Father!" Simona exclaimed. "Why do you have such a low opinion of him? What did he ever do to you?" I was amazed by how much she resembled her father – not in appearance, but in her inner strength.

Schott sat back down with his mouth set stubbornly. "Hmph!" he said. "I've never even heard of Brigadoom for one thing. That proves he must be lying." He looked back at us. "Here's the situation. I'm sure that miscreant will be back here before long after my Simona again. So until you put a stop to him once and for all, you can forget about trying to collect any reward!"

Simona clasped her hands before her chest in disbelief. "Why do you refuse to believe their story, Father?" she asked. "If he really is all on his own miles away from home, it must be terrible for him."

Schott looked to her, shaking his head. "Och, lassie. I'm doing this all to protect you, you know. Do try to understand." Simona didn't seem to be listening. When he finished talking, her face lit up and she suddenly turned and ran out of the throne room. "Simona!" King Schott called out, but she was already gone.

Figuring that we were no longer wanted, Jessica and I left throne room, our spirits dampened. Stella appeared out of nowhere again. "What was that!?" she complained. "We go through all that effort, and for what? Nothing! There's no way we're getting any Benevolessence now with the king being so ungrateful!"

I was about to shake my head when I suddenly heard someone call my name from the left. "Michael!" We turned towards the voice and saw Princess Simona at the end of the hallway. She was looking about, as though to make sure no one was watching. "There's something I need to talk to all of you about. I don't want anyone to overhear." She pointed to a door down the hallway. "My room's through that door and to the east. Could we talk there? It's about Brigadoom." Without waiting for an answer, Simona went through the door.

I turned to Jessica. "What do you think? Should we follow her?"

"I guess," she answered. "We have nothing else that we can do, and if she really does know about Brigadoom, it could be useful."

"Alright, then. Let's go." As we headed through the hallways, Stella continued to complain about every little thing. I was really starting to get annoyed by her. Thankfully, we quickly reached Simona's room, where Stella had to stop talking.

Upon entering the room, I was surprised to see that, compared to the rest of the castle, her bedroom was rather simple. Of course, it was still ridiculously grand – her wardrobe alone was probably worth more than most of the buildings in Angel Falls – but is was sparsely furnished.

Facing us from in front of her bed, Simona began talking. "Sorry to ask you to come here like this," she said. "Father would just try to interfere if he overheard. You see, I actually have heard of Brigadoom." Jessica and I looked at each other in surprise. "I remember it from a nursery rhyme one of the maids used to sing to me when I was a wee girl. Maybe that song can give us a clue as to how we can fix all this! The maid's gone back to live in Zere now. It's a tiny village just to the west of Loch Storn." She sighed. "The Wight Knight isn't the evil character that Father thinks he is. I just know it. He needs help, Michael. Please, do whatever you can. You too, Jessica."

"We'll do everything we can," I promised.

"Yeah, you can count on us," Jessica added.

Simona smiled. "Thank you, both of you. Now go, quickly, before my father comes looking for me."

We thanked the princess for her help and quickly left the castle along the path we came in through. As we were passing through the market, I suddenly remembered something important. "I need to get something. I'll be right back," I said, running into a nearby store before Jessica could respond. In the store, I quickly found what I wanted and purchased it. Back outside, Jessica was patiently waiting where I left her, curious to see what I ran off to get.

"What did you get?" she asked.

"A world map. I've meant to get one for a while now, but I kept forgetting. Let's take a look at it." I opened up the map and held it in front of me.

"Where are we?" Jessica asked.

"Right here." I pointed to a drawing of a castle in the middle of the northwestern land mass. There were six main land masses in total: two in the west, one in the center, and three in the east. Interestingly, there was a blank area on the north central area of the map. I wondered what was there…

Looking around some more, I found Angel Falls, which was denoted by a waterfall. To the north of Stornway, I also determined the location of Zere, which was marked by a large tree. "There's Zere," I said, pointing to it.

"That's not too far," Jessica said. "We can totally get there in a few hours, no problem."

"Great. Let's go."

* * *

The beginning of our hike north took us through familiar territory, as it was the same path that we took to Loch Storn the night before. However, instead of going east towards the Loch, we turned west towards the continuing land mass. After a while, we came across vast fields of grain. "Are the people of Zere farmers?" I asked.

"I think so," Jessica answered. "I read somewhere that Zere is a really small town, so I don't think that they'd have much else."

I looked around. "Well, whatever the reason, they really enjoy making scarecrows. Look how many there are."

"Yeah, that's strange," Jessica replied. "Let's hurry up and get to Zere already.

For the next few minutes, we walked in silence, just enjoying the sound of the wind passing through the grain. Suddenly, I got the feeling that I was being watched. I looked behind me, but I didn't see anything but grain and scarecrows. Looking closer at them, I noticed that some of them were holding scythes in their hands.

"What's wrong, Michael?" Jessica asked, concerned.

"Nothing. I just thought I felt something," I explained. "Let's walk a little faster. I don't feel comfortable out here."

The following minutes passed in silence as well. The whole time, I kept thinking about the scarecrows with the scythes. Why did they seem so familiar to me? I kept trying to remember where I had heard of them before, and after a few moments, I figured it out.

Many years ago, I had listened to a report from the Guardian of Zere. She had mentioned a group of monsters that resembled scarecrows with scythes that were damaging the crops and harming local farmers. I believe she had called them Ragged Reapers. I also remember that, a few years later, she had reported that the monster population had been decreased to a non-damaging level around Zere. If that's the case, then why were they here again? Did they return with all the other monsters after the earthquake? While I was thinking this, I heard something behind me. I froze.

"Jessica, stop moving," I ordered.

"Wh-"

"Shh!" I cut her off. I had heard the sound again. It sounded like something stepping on a piece of grain. I waited to hear it again, holding my breath so I wouldn't miss it. I slowly reached for my sword, and pulled it out quietly.

'_crack_'

That time, it sounded like it came from right behind us. We both quickly spun around and came face to face with a Ragged Reaper, which was trying to sneak up on us. Realizing that its cover was blown, it held up its scythe and brought it down in a swinging arc, causing both of us to jump out of the way. It cackled creepily and pulled back its scythe, preparing to attack again. I rolled under its blade, slashed across its front with my sword – revealing that it was made completely from dry straw – and leapt back a few feet, dodging another pass of the blade. It appeared completely unaffected by my attack.

Getting tired of trying to hit me, the Ragged Reaper turned towards Jessica, figuring she would be easier to get, but was immediately hit with a fireball to the face. Catching on fire, it ran around in a panic until it was completely engulfed in flames, leaving nothing but a small cloud of purple dust swirling around in the air.

"That worked rather well," Jessica remarked.

"No kidding," I said. "If we ever run into one of those again, make sure you start with a Frizz spell."

"Totally," she agreed.

* * *

It seemed that news of our – or maybe I should say Jessica's – brutal destruction of the Ragged Reaper had quickly spread among the monsters in the field, as they all ignored us as we walked past. I figured that they didn't want to fight us, but didn't want to look cowardly by running away, either. Jessica said they were actually completely paralyzed in fear of her firepower. I didn't bother arguing with her.

We eventually managed to reach the other end of the fields, where we could see Zere just up ahead. The most prominent feature about the village was the giant tree that stood in the center, with the rest of the village built around it. That being said, I could easily tell that Zere was very, very small. It was even smaller than Angel Falls.

When we arrived, we began looking around town and stopped at the local store to pick up supplies. I bought a stronger sword and some better armor while Jessica picked up a more powerful wand and a new pair of shoes. We both also got new shields that were much more durable than our old ones. While selling our old equipment, I decided to ask the shop owner for directions. "Excuse me," I began, catching his attention. "Do you know anyone who lives here that used to work in Stornway?"

"Aye, Alanna lives on the other side of our tree," he said. "She used to work as the princess's nurse – imagine!"

We thanked him, and continued looking around the small village. When we reached the other side of 'their tree,' we found one house atop a small hill with its door open. As we approached the house, we saw two grey-haired women sitting at a table, having a conversation. "Wheesht, Alanna!" said one of them. "There you go again, blethering about the old days."

The other woman, Alanna, smiled. "I was actually a wee bit jealous of you back then, Petra," she said, stopping abruptly when she noticed Jessica and me at the front door. "Aye?" she asked.

Petra turned in her seat and looked at us. "Och, we've company! Welcome, welcome!"

We stepped through the doorway. "Sorry to bother you," I began, "but, we have a quick question we need to ask you."

"What would that be, dearie?" Alanna asked.

"Were either of you Princess Simona's nurse when she was a child?" Jessica asked for me.

"Aye, that's right," Alanna said. "I used to look after Princess Simona. Why do you ask?"

"We were wondering, could sing one of the songs you sung for her for us?" I replied. "The one about Brigadoom?"

"Well, I can't deny a request like that, can I?" Alanna asked. She turned to Petra. "You'll sing along with me, won't you, Petra?"

"The Right Knight ditty?" Petra asked. "Aye, I could sing that in my sleep." Jessica and I glanced at each other with confused looks. The Right Knight? Everyone so far had called him the _Wight_ Knight. Even he called himself that.

Alanna and Petra, however, didn't seem to notice our confusion as they prepared to sing for us. Petra began the song. "_Giddy up, giddy up, and away he goes!_"

Alanna continued: "_The Right Knight sets off on his steed_

"_In search of evil he rides_

"_If he can defeat the terrible beast_

"_He'll be home to wed his bride._

"_The town is full of laughter, preparing a feast fit for a queen,_"

"_Och! But then, Disaster!_

"_The Right Knight's nowhere to be seen!_"

"_Bird, north, Brigadoomward on,_

"_Tell her that her knight is gone,_"

"_Bird, north, Brigadoomward on,_

"_Tell her that her knight is goooone!_"

Alanna smiled. "Well, that's the song, dearie. I hope it was to your liking." She paused. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but why would you come all this way just to hear an old nursery rhyme?"

I hesitated a moment, before telling her, "We're actually trying to find Brigadoom."

"Oh," Alanna responded, "so you want to find Brigadoom, do you? In that case, I'd pay special attention to the part about the bird flying north. Why don't you try flying north yourself and seeing what you can find?"

"We'll definitely give it a shot," Jessica replied. "Thank you, both of you."

"It was no problem, my dears, no problem at all!" Alanna responded. "I wish you luck!"

We thanked both of them one more time before leaving their cottage. Outside, Jessica turned to me. "North, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "Let's check the map." I pulled out the map and looked at Zere. To the northwest of Zere, there was a strip of land that we had yet to explore. There was just one problem with that. "It looks like we're going to have to go through the Doomingale Forest," I told Jessica.

Her face paled. "The D-Doomingale Forest?" she repeated. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Yes. I don't think there is going to be anyway around it. That's all there is north of Zere."

Jessica sighed. "I guess that makes sense. If a lost kingdom no one has ever heard of before exists somewhere, it would probably be in that cursed place."

"My thoughts exactly," I replied. "Let's get going. I don't think the Doomingale Forest is a place that we want to be caught in during the dead of night."

However, as we headed back around the tree, we heard a shout from the entrance of the village. "S-somebody, help me!" yelled a large blond man, who had just come running into the village. Right behind him, riding his black steed, was the Wight – I mean Right – Knight. "Aargh! We're done for! Help! Heelp!" the man continued yelling, growing ever more frantic.

"Why do you run from me?" asked the Wight – _Right_ – Knight. "I just want to talk with you. I mean you no harm."

"Dinnae gie me that!" yelled the man. "I saw that witch in the woods out lookin' for ye, so I did! A real piece o' work, she was, red eyes a-blazin' and all! Asked me if I'd seen her slave, the Wight Knight, so she did! That's you, I'd wager. Ye're her slave, are ye not?"

"Do I look like a witch's slave to you?" the knight demanded. "I've never heard anything so ridiculous!" That's when he noticed me and Jessica standing over by the church, watching the unfolding events. "It's Michael, is it not?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

"We're trying to find more about Brigadoom," Jessica answered.

"You've been trying to find out more about Brigadoom?" the knight asked. "You really didn't need to go to such trouble on my account." He paused for a moment. "So…were you able to learn anything?"

"Your real name is the Right Knight, isn't it?" I asked.

"The Right Knight," he repeated. "Yes, that's what they called me back in Brigadoom. However did you find that out?"

"There's a song about it," Jessica answered. "Hey, Michael, you're a minstrel. Why don't you sing the song for him?"

"What!?" I said, immediately tensing up and turning on Jessica. "You want me to do what!?"

"Sing the Right Knight ditty."

"N-no, I couldn't," I argued. "I don't remember all the words. There are too many people around. I don't have a good singing voice. I-I-I-" I saw the look on Jessica's – and everyone else's – face. They all wanted to hear me sing. Why, I'll never know, but they all really wanted me to sing. "Fine," I conceded. "I'll sing it." I took a deep breath, released a string of curses under my breath, and began singing the nursery rhyme loud enough for everyone to hear it.

When I finished, the remaining silence was extremely unbearable. I looked down at the ground, refused to look at anybody, and felt my cheeks grow very warm. After a moment, I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw that it was Jessica, who had a small smile on her lips. "That was really good, Michael," she said.

A smile slowly crept onto my face. "Do you really think so?" When she nodded, I definitely felt a lot better, though I was still super embarrassed about the ordeal.

In the meantime, the Right Knight seemed to be consumed in his own thoughts. "Surely not!" he said. "There's a song about me! This is all very odd. Surely I'm not just the figment of a storyteller's imagination?" He looked towards us once more. "'Bird, north, Brigadoomward on'? That's the only clue there was in the song?" He turned his steed around. "Then I suppose there's nothing for it but to follow the bird's example. Northward ho!" he cried, and he galloped out of the village and to the north.

Jessica and I stood there for a few moments while everyone else went back to their regular business. Then Jessica asked, "Should we follow him north?"

"I think we should follow him," I answered. "He is from Brigadoom, and if anyone would be able to find it, it would be him." Jessica agreed, and we left the village after the Right Knight, following the hoof prints of his steed to the north.

* * *

**Well, there you go. I hope you liked this chapter. I feel it served to expand upon the relationship forming between Michael and Jessica. And poor Michael, having to sing in front of everybody. I could never do that. I would sooner have a heart attack (I probably would, too).**

**And just like last chapter, the contest to see if anyone can make a good suggestion for how the other two party members will be joining Michael's party is still going on. In case you didn't catch them last time, here are the rules again:**

**1\. Please make only one suggestion per review.**

**2\. I have already decided most of the defining traits of the two other party members. Your job is only to describe how they meet Michael.**

**3\. In your suggestion, please include the place where it takes place and how exactly the meet. The gender and vocation don't necessarily have to match, but it would definitely make things a lot easier on my part.**

**4\. There will be AT MOST 2 winners. There could easily be none. It all depends on how good your suggestions are.**

**And, as with every other chapter, please point out any typos, errors, or inconsistencies that you notice in this chapter. I'm not perfect, but that doesn't mean I can't try to be.**

**If you like what you have read, please follow, favorite, and review. It means a lot to me to hear from you guys.**

**Until next time, this has been D~F.**


	7. Act 1 - Part 6: The (Un)Happiest Place

**Homework. So much freaking homework. By the Almighty, you can't even imagine how much I homework I have. It's almost all I have done this entire summer. Let me summarize what I've done the past month and a half: "Ow, my back!" - Homework - Homework - My birthday (featuring more homework) - Homework - Trip to Florida (With homework co-starring on the airplane to and from, in every car ride, and in the line for Space Mountain) - Tomodachi Life - Homework - Write an essay - Homework - Apply to college - Homework - Homework. I have consistently been up until one in the morning every night for two weeks now, and I haven't even been able to enjoy it!**

***exhales***

**Now that I got that off of my chest, now we can focus on what's actually important here. Hooray! A new chapter is finally up. It only took 48 solid days to make it happen. I don't even know what to say about this chapter. There are some tense moments, some hysterical moments, and some touching moments. It's been a long couple of weeks, I'm tired, and I don't really feel like making anymore jokes until the ending note, so let's just get the disclaimer and reviews over with so you can read the chapter already.**

_**Dragon Quest IX **_**is property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.**

**What I do own are the characters that I make up, such as Michael and Jessica and some of the crazy things that happens around them.**

**And here are the reviews:**

**Master of Red Windex: Interesting idea...**

**Yurei Hanatsuki: I don't think I ever noticed that grave, actually. Anyway, thanks for the well-wishing. I do feel better.**

**princessdaisy01: Thank you. Like your last one, this chapter also clearly shows why your latest suggestion also can't happen.**

**Luckenhaft: Because I'm magic. Also, I'll tell Michael you said that.**

**AdventurerOver9000: It is a great game, isn't it? Also, I'm working on them as fast as I can.**

**WolfyPup: Most of your curiosities should be answered in the next few chapters. Of course, I'm not going to spoil anything know, am I? ;-)**

* * *

_Act 1 - Part 6: The (Un)Happiest Place on Protectorate_

(Michael's POV)

"Well, this looks fun."

We were standing at the edge of the Doomingale Forest, a few miles northwest of Zere, just like the map had said. However, it seemed that the name was only half correct. Apparently, the mortals consider a handful of living trees surrounded by hundreds of dead trees in large pools of poison infested with monsters a 'forest.' They got the first part on the nose, though.

"Sarcasm?" Jessica asked.

"Absolutely," I replied. "But, if the nursery rhyme was correct, Brigadoom has to be in here somewhere." I suddenly realized how weird it was that we were risking our lives at the word of a children's song. I shook my head, not believing how far I have fallen.

"I can barely see twenty feet into the trees," Jessica remarked. "It's so dark and gloomy in there. We're going to have to be extra careful in there."

I nodded. In all honesty, we had stood out here for an hour and a half. Neither of us had yet summoned the courage to step past the tree line. Not that you could blame us – The forest was giving off a powerful evil feeling. That feeling was intensified by the fact that, despite it being perfectly sunny and warm back in Zere, there were many dark thunderheads swirling directly above the forest.

Finally deciding that enough was enough, I took a deep breath and took a step forward, entering the cover of the forest. I really don't know what I was expecting to happen, but, thankfully, nothing did. After waiting a moment to make sure everything was relatively safe, I turned back towards Jessica. "Come on," I said to her. "We'll have to hurry if we want to get through before it gets dark." Jessica just stood there, looking at me like I was crazy. I sighed. "Everything's going to be fine, Jessica," I told her, extending my hand out at her. My other hand held my sword.

She just stared at my hand for a moment, gulped, and grabbed it. "I believe you," she said, stepping into the trees next to me. "Now let's get out of here as fast as possible." I agreed, squeezed her hand in encouragement, and began making my way through the forest, Jessica staying close to my side the entire time.

It was slow work getting through the woods. We had to tread carefully in the darkness to avoid stepping into any pools of poison hidden in the brush on the ground. We kept running into monsters along the way that were eager to take on the fresh meat wandering through their territory.

Most of these battles were uneventful, but there was one that was definitely worth noting. At one point, an arrow suddenly flew at us from the darkness. I barely managed to raise my shield fast enough to avoid getting impaled, and Jessica instinctively shot a fireball at where the arrow came from, revealing a Bodkin Fletcher bursting into flames and disappearing into a cloud of purple dust.

Normally, that would have been the end of the excitement, but one of the stray embers landed in a poison pool, causing it to ignite in a giant ball of fire. Thankfully, nothing else caught on fire, but the sudden flash of light and the large cloud of acrid smoke caused both of us to be temporarily blinded.

When we could see again, we quickly attempted to leave the area, but it seemed all the commotion had attracted a Skeleton, who was upset because of it. It immediately swung its sword at me, which I quickly dodged and countered. All I succeeded in doing, however, was making the Skeleton a bit shorter, as I had knocked out one segment of its spine. Enraged at its disgrace, the Skeleton raised its sword in the air, probably trying to repay the favor. I easily side-stepped out of the way and saw, through the Skeleton's body, Jessica raise her wand. I quickly lifted my shield as I felt the air twist in front of me before exploding within the Skeleton's ribcage, completely blowing it apart.

We just stood there in silence while the fire sputtered in the background. It really wasn't that much different from some of the things we had done less than a day ago, but because of our environment, we were both completely terrified at this point.

A distant rumble of thunder brought us back to our senses, and, without speaking a word, we continued on through the darkness. We didn't manage to get very far before we were forced to stop again. Right in front of us sat a giant pool of poison that extended beyond measure to the left and the right. Directly across the pool we saw a rough path that led to a distant square of light – the end of the forest.

The problem was, there wasn't a safe way for us to cross the poison, and neither of us really wanted to lose our feet to the acidic fluid. Upset at having been thwarted so close to our goal; I vented my anger on a nearby group of Brownies that were laughing at us.

Meanwhile, Jessica just stood there, appearing to be deep in thought. After a moment, her eyes lit up and she turned to me. "Michael!" she called to me.

Hearing her call, I stopped my venting and faced her, giving the few remaining Brownies a chance to escape into the shadows. "What is it?" I replied.

She smiled. "I have a way to get across the poison."

I hurried over to her. "Really? What is it?"

"There's this spell that I just remembered I have," she answered. "It's called Safe Passage, and it creates a sort of shield around us that protects us from natural hazards…hazards such as pools of poison." She sounded proud of herself for having found a solution to the problem.

"That's fantastic!" I exclaimed, smiling for the first time since we entered this Almighty-forsaken place. "Hurry up and do it! I want to get out of here."

She nodded in agreement. "Okay, hang on – I haven't done this in a while." I stepped back. She gripped her wand and closed her eyes in concentration. The wand quickly began glowing a warm yellow color before Jessica suddenly thrust it onto the ground, sending a shockwave of energy through the ground that enveloped both of us. Once she had finished, Jessica reopened her eyes. "Did it work?" she asked.

"Only one way to find out," I said. I stepped to the edge of the pool and, taking a deep breath, slowly lowered my foot into the purple liquid. "Aaugh! It burns!" I screamed, causing Jessica to jump out of her skin in shock.

"R-really!?" she cried out.

I stopped screaming and laughed. "Nah. I'm just joking." A sudden fist to the face sent me flying halfway across the pool. Jessica apparently didn't find it as funny as I did.

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" she screamed at me. I didn't answer back because I was dazed and in shock and slightly afraid of her at the moment. Also, I was too busy trying to ignore Stella's overly joyous taunts about how I was just hit by a girl.

Not receiving an answer, Jessica's anger subsided and was replaced with concern. She ran through the poison over to where I was lying on my back. "Michael!" she called. "Are you okay?"

I slowly sat up, rubbing my jaw. "Yeah… I probably deserved that."

Jessica nodded and extended her hand to help me up. "Just a little. I'm sorry I hit you, though."

"Don't be. I should apologize to you. What I did was pretty horrible."

"Well…yeah, it was. I didn't hit you too hard, though, did I?"

I looked back over her shoulder at the distant shore. "Nah. I only flew a good twenty, maybe thirty, feet with my bag and armor." Jessica nervously laughed a bit. "On a completely unrelated note, have you ever considered being a martial artist?"

She gave me a look that made me fear that she was going to hit me again. I really hoped she didn't. "I get it. I hit you and it hurt. Don't try to make me feel worse than I already do, or I'll hit you again." I gulped and stepped back. She smiled. "Also, you might want to remember who just almost knocked you out." She walked past me towards the exit of the forest. "By a mage, even," she said to herself, just loud enough for me to hear. I was left in the middle of the pool, completely speechless and dumbfounded.

"What…just happened?" I asked myself.

"You just got wrecked by Jessica!" Stella happily exclaimed.

"Yes, yes I did," I agreed. "But…how? That shouldn't have been physically possible." Stella shrugged, signifying that she didn't really care. I thought about for a minute and remembered something I learned years ago in a Celestrian science class. "Freaking adrenaline is going to be the death of me, I swear." I shook my head. "What have I gotten myself into…?

* * *

Outside the forest, Jessica was patiently waiting for me. She had a look that was half smug, half apologetic. I decided not to press the issue. "Are you ready to go?" I asked.

"Yup," she answered. "Let's go."

Thankfully, it wasn't too long of a walk before we found something of interest. As we went around a bend in the path, we came across a vast field of rubble. Strangely, there was a large, gated arch standing over the path, but nothing else. I was confused. There was nothing but piles of stone between where we were standing and the distant ocean. Where was Brigadoom?

A sudden flash of lightning lit up the area enough to reveal a few structures that were standing. Most of them looked somewhat like buildings. If there are buildings here, then that would mean…

Realization hit me. "Oh…"

"…Shit," Jessica finished. She came to the same conclusion with me: This _was_, or at least _used to be_ Brigadoom.

"No!" a voice cried out from behind us. We turned around to see the Right Knight riding out of the forest. I wondered how on the Protectorate we managed to beat him here, since he had had a huge head start, and was riding a horse while we walked. He was staring at the ruins, and was clearly as surprised as we were at its current state. "This can't be Brigadoom. I don't understand. How can I have been away for so long that it's fallen into such disrepair?" He paused for a moment. "And where is my beloved Mona? Princes Mona! Mona!"

We stepped to the side as he rode his horse past us and through the gate, entering the ruined kingdom. We lost sight of him as it finally began to rain from the mysterious storm clouds that hung over the area.

"What do you think happened to this place?" Jessica asked through the rain.

"I have no idea," I answered. I really didn't know. Whatever happened here, it must have happened long before my coming into existence, and that was a while ago in itself. "Whatever it was, though, must have been something terrible to cause such a level of destruction; to end so much life."

* * *

As happy as we were to finally be out of the Doomingale Forest, our solemn walk through Brigadoom wasn't much better. As we ventured farther into the lost city, we passed the remains of many houses, now filled with hordes of monsters, many of whom were watching us carefully. In some of the houses, I could see a couple still-standing bookcases, lined with ruined books whose knowledge was now lost forever.

After a while, in what looked like the foundations of a once-grand castle, we found a staircase leading underground. There were hoof prints around the entrance, so the Right Knight must have come this way as well. "Shall we go in?" I asked.

"You're the leader," is all Jessica said in response.

I nodded, and carefully descended the stairs. At the bottom, we found a long hallway that extended to the left and to the right. The right path, however, was filled with rubble, so we couldn't go that way. As we examined our surroundings, we heard a sound come from behind the wall on the other side of the hall. It sounded like a voice, but neither of us could figure out what it had said or who had said it. We quickly decided to investigate.

We were forced to follow the left hallway, which appeared to go around a large central room where we heard the noise come from earlier. Once we reached the side opposite from where we began, we found a large oak door heading into the central chamber. I pushed it open a bit, and we looked inside.

The Right Knight stood in the center of the room, facing away from us. His sword was in his hand, pointed at something in front of him. All I could see of the creature he faced was a pair of violet, bat-like wings. '_Great, a demon_,' I thought. '_I really hate dealing with those things._'

A sharp voice came from the creature in front of the Right Knight. "Ka ha ha!" it laughed. It sounded like the voice of a woman, although I wasn't absolutely positive yet. We carefully edged into the room, trying to go unnoticed.

When we got far enough into the room to see around the Right Knight, my eyes widened in shock. It was definitely a demon, and definitely a female. In addition to her bat wings, she had blue-grey skin covered in a long, blood-red dress with a part down the middle. Her eyes had no pupils, and were the same shade as her dress. Atop her head was a circlet that held back her long, dark-purple hair. She was easily one of the most terrifying beings I had ever seen in my existence.

She was sitting in a throne at the far end of the room. "Welcome home, ma love," she said.

'_Ma love_'? I thought. Was this witch the Princess Mona the knight had spoken of? Was he bewitched by her demonic magic?

"I've been lookin' ev'rywhere for ye," the demon witch continued. "Ye wernae hidin' from me, were ye, ye naughty boy?" Her lisp was so annoying; I almost got sick just from listening to her talk.

"…Morag!" cried the Right Knight. "Now I understand. Now I remember everything. I left Brigadoom in search of you, so that I could destroy you."

One of the lines from Alanna's nursery rhyme came to mind suddenly. '_In search of evil he rides_,' I believe it went.

Morag rose from the throne. "Ka ha ha!" she laughed. "But it was I who defeated ye, an' wrapped ye in mah sweet, sweet embrace…An' I had ye all tae maself there for a century or two, in oor own private wee world of darkness. Ye're all mine, an' dinnae forget it. Ye're mah Wight Knight in shinin' armor…"

I finally understood where he had gotten the name 'Wight Knight' from. Because of Morag's lisp, she was unable to pronounce the letter 'r' properly. Therefore, 'Right' became 'Wight'. What a way to get named.

The Right Knight tensed up. "Enough!" he shouted. "This is all your doing. What have you done with her? Where is my Mona?" And without a moment of hesitation, he leapt at Morag with his sword pointed at her heart. Almost immediately, however, Morag's red eyes flashed darkly for a moment and two beams of darkness shot from them through the Right Knight. The knight flew backwards several feet. As he struggled to get back on his feet, I noticed a cloud of dark energy crackling around him. "Graaaah!" he cried as he finally got to his feet.

"Ka ha ha!" Morag cackled again. "Ye silly nyaff! The earthquake broke the spell I placed on ye, but there's nothing can stand in the way of true love. I'll put another spell on ye, an' we'll be all alone together in the darkness again before ye know it. Just the two of us…"

"We have to go help him," I whispered to Jessica. She looked at me like I was crazy, which, in all honesty, I probably was. Without waiting for a response, I walked towards the middle of the room, stopping between the Right Knight and Morag, who watched me curiously. Jessica hesitated for a moment before quickly coming to my side.

"An' who might ye be, hm?" she asked. "Ye're not here to steal my beloved Wight Knight away from me, are ye? Ha! Well, ye're a fool if ye are. Can ye not feel the strength of the curse I've put on mah poor wee darling? It's pure dead powerful!" She laughed a bit, then continued. "Dinnae worry yer pretty wee heid if ye cannae, though. Ye'll feel it soon enough for yerself! Ka ha ha!"

It took me a split second to understand her meaning, and another one to notice that her eyes had flashed once again. However, her eyes weren't aimed at me, but next to me, where Jessica stood, still slightly frozen in fear. Without even thinking, I quickly pushed her out of the way onto the floor, putting myself in the path of Morag's twin beams instead.

I immediately fell to the floor, my eyes clenched shut in pain. Wave upon wave of dark energy tore through my being, giving the sensation of being both crushed by darkness and electrocuted by countless lightning bolts. Through my suffering, I was able to vaguely hear Jessica screaming my name and Morag cackling loudly.

With a sudden burst of energy, I stood back up and threw out by arms . The dark energy, as well as the immense pain, dissipated almost instantly. Jessica gasped in surprise, and Morag had a face of pure shock. I smiled smugly at her.

"Wh-what…? She asked. "I've the cruellest, most crippling curses known tae mortalkind…how could they not work…?" She gave me a strange look. "Just what exactly are ye? If ye were mortal, my curse couldnae have failed." Realization suddenly hit her, and she reared back in fear. My smile grew wider. "…Wait, ye're not…one of _them_, are ye?" I simply nodded, and discretely reached for my sword, expecting Morag to attack at any second.

"Ach, no! We cannae be havin' this!" Morag cried out. She pulled out her knife, and Jessica and I pulled out our weapons in response. "Why couldn't ye just have left us in peace, eh?" she asked. "Now I'm goin' to have tae make yer pretty face a whole lot less lovely!"

And with that, she pounced. Of course, since we were already expecting her to attack, we both easily jumped out of the way. I quickly slashed at her before she could fully recover from her attack, and I managed to tear part of her wings. She screamed in rage and quickly counter-slashed with her knife, which I quickly jumped back to avoid.

Meanwhile, Jessica began attacking with her magic. She started with a Frizz, which hit Morag right in the middle of her back, singeing her hair and leaving large burn marks across her dress and wings. She swung around towards Jessica, even angrier than before, and started charging at her. Jessica quickly cast Crack to stop her, which it partly succeeded in doing.

After getting hit in the head with the large ice crystal, Morag stopped running suddenly and gave a knowing smile, before raising her knife into the air and casting a rather similar looking spell. As I had expected, another ice crystal formed in the air, except this time, it was over Jessica and not Morag.

Jessica quickly jumped out of the way of the spell, but the force of its impact with the ground knocked her off her feet. Morag quickly took advantage of Jessica's vulnerable state and swiftly resumed her advance on her, or at least, she would have, if I hadn't snuck up behind her and slashed her all the way across her back, almost completely removing one of her wings.

She roared in both pain and anger, and spun back towards me faster than I could react, her eyes flashing with unspeakable evil. I suddenly found that I couldn't move, and I realized that she must have paralyzed me with her glare. Now taking advantage of my vulnerable state, she covered her knife with a pulsing energy, and stabbed me through the right shoulder. My eyes widened in a silent scream of pain as I watched a few tendrils of energy leave my wound and wrap around Morag, who had a smug smile on her face. I could only stare as some of her wounds healed and even her one wing became fully attached again. She had stolen some of my energy to heal herself!

Confident that I was no longer a problem, she turned around to be met with both a fireball and an explosion to the face, courtesy of Jessica's Frizz and Bang spells. The resulting explosion sent Morag flying through the air back a few feet over my stiffened body, dazing her for a few minutes. Jessica quickly ran over to where I was standing, rummaging through her bag for something to help me. She found a Medicinal Herb, which she placed on my shoulder to help seal the wound, and a Moonwort Bulb, which she forced into my mouth. The latter tasted absolutely revolting, but almost immediately after it entered my body, I felt my limbs loosening as the paralysis wore off.

I quickly thanked her for her help, and we both turned to face Morag, who had just gotten back up and was shaking her head. Having pulled herself back together, she looked up at the two of us, waiting for her, and she put on a mischievous smile. What she did next, I cannot explain in words, but needless to say, it left me thoroughly confused and Jessica thoroughly pissed off.

Having considered her...strategy a success, Morag flew at the two of us with her knife held at the ready. Jessica wasn't going to let her get away with it, however. She quickly cast a Woosh spell to intercept the flying witch, but in her rage, she lost control of the spell, causing it to go haywire, effectively releasing a full-blown twister into the chamber.

Like last time, I quickly thrust my sword into the ground and held onto it for dear life. However, my right arm still wasn't feeling very dear to life, and it quickly slipped off the hilt. This left only my left arm to hold my entire body to the ground, which is difficult under normal circumstances and nearly impossible with the monstrous breeze currently tearing in the room. As a result, I wasn't too surprised, but rather dismayed nonetheless, when my left hand started slipping.

As the suction finally overpowered me and my hands finally slipped, I closed my eyes, waiting for the terrible pain that was about to come. Before it could, however, I felt another hand grip my own, and I opened my eyes to see Jessica had grabbed my arm to stop me from becoming one with the wind and sky. I quickly told her to not let it go. The rest of her body was wrapped around my sword because, while she is unaffected by her own spells, the force the twister had on me was enough to pull her in as well.

At the same time this is going on, Morag, who couldn't stop herself in the air in time, flew right into the turbulent winds of the super-Woosh. She was tossed around in the cyclone for more than a minute, colliding with collected rubble at dangerous speeds and having most of her wings, hair, and dress torn off in the process, before the spell finally ran out of energy and subsided. As Jessica and I collected ourselves, Morag fell to the floor with a solid thud, soon followed by all of her fellow wind-blown pieces of debris.

Certain the battle was over, we carefully approached what remained of the powerful witch, Morag. She was struggling to move as we approached. "No…" she groaned. "Ma Wight Knight… Oor eternal world together…no more… But, ma love…ye must ken that ye cannae turn back the centuries. Yer beloved Mona is no more…Ka…ha ha…" She struggled to raise herself high enough to see the Right Knight. "Now ye're doomed to walk alone in eternal despair… Ka ha ha ha ha…!" After saying that, Morag fell limp and silent, and her ruined body dissolved into the darkness.

Relieved that Morag was finally gone, we turned to check on the Wight Knight. It seems Morag's crippling magic had ended with her demise, so the energy was no longer surrounded him. Regardless, he remained on his knees. "Princess Mona! It can't be true!" he cried. He looked up at us. "With your help, I finally returned to Brigadoom. And yet…the passing of time has destroyed my homeland. And my beloved Mona is no longer here to welcome me."

He paused for a long time. "I came home at last…but alas, I was too late…"

There was another long period of silence where we remained still, thinking of events both recent and long since passed. Suddenly, a familiar voice came from the doorway. "You are not too late," it said. We all quickly turned to see that the voice had belonged to Princess Simona.

At least, I think it was Princess Simona. Her voice was slightly different, bearing more resemblance to the Right Knight's accent. Additionally, around her neck, the princess had a golden necklace embedded with a large ruby pendant, which contrasted amazingly well with her beautiful, pure white dress.

"That necklace!" the Right Knight cried out. The princess slowly and elegantly walked into the room and around the Right Knight, forcing him to turn his head nearly all the way around. "Princess Mona!" he exclaimed, his voice overflowing with relief and love. "I don't… aren't you…?"

The princess shook her head, interrupting him. "I made you a promise," she explained. "I swore I would wait for you, no matter how long it took." She offered her right hand to the knight. "My beloved Right Knight…take my hand and dance with me! The first dance we would have had as man and wife…"

The Right Knight slowly rose until he was fully standing up. "Princess Mona…" he said. "You forgive me?" The princess merely smiled, and the Right Knight took her hand, pulling them close to one another.

As they did so, beautiful music came out of nowhere and filled the room with its entrancing melody. Princess and knight began to dance as one, both staring into each other's eyes. The music seemed to transform the room, turning it from a ruined throne room into the grandest of ballrooms. Over in the side of the room, I was slowly swaying to the mysterious music, smiling at the touching scene before me. I took a quick peak at Jessica, and I noticed that she was crying a little.

This continued on for at least fifteen minutes without a single pause in their movements. They finally stopped dancing, although the music continued on, once the Right Knight began to glow softly in a fashion familiar to me. They looked at each other. "Thank you, Princess," the Right Knight said. "I know now that you are not my Mona. But…without you, I would have been forced to wander forever in eternal despair."

Simona – I had finally determined it was her – gently smiled. "I knew you were the Right Knight from the old stories," she explained, her voice now back to normal. "I just knew it. I knew there was a connection between us the moment you appeared."

"It is not unbelievable that you, who inherited the memories of my beloved Mona, would have felt so…" the knight said.

Simona's eyes widened. "So I am Princess Mona's…!"

The Right Knight turned to us. "Thank you, Michael and Jessica," he said. "Without you two, I would never have uncovered the truth. Now I have no regrets. Only gratitude…"

He looked up into the sky, finally at peace. He slowly rose up, his glow growing to unbearable levels, before finally disappearing in a bright flash. I looked over at Jessica, worried about how she would react to this, but she seemed to accept it for what it was, whatever it was.

Once again, the room fell silent, until Simona finally broke the silence. "I know I was supposed to leave it all up to you, but I couldn't help myself and I just had to come along." She paused. "It's all very odd. When I was dancing with him, I heard a voice…a woman's voice… She was saying 'thank you'…

"Anyway, I must hurry back to the castle and tell everyone the news. I'll be sure to have your reward ready for you, so do stop by the castle as soon as you can." She turned around and left the room. As she left, I saw the green uniform of the castle guards through the doorway.

We waited until everything was silent again before we began talking again. "I really underestimated the people of Stornway," I admitted.

"How so?" Jessica asked.

"Think about it. Princess Simona and her guards are about to go through the Doomingale Forest for the second time today." Realization suddenly dawned on me. "Shit! We have to go through it again, too. Ugh!"

Upon remembering this fact, Jessica's shoulders slumped, but they quickly shot back up again when, not for the first time that day, she remembered something important. "Maybe not, Michael. Maybe not."

"What do you mean? We can't go around it in any direction. The only path is straight through it."

"Not necessarily. We can go over it"

"What? Over it? How on the Protectorate are we going to do that?"

Jessica reached into her bag, before finally pulling something out. "With these." In her palm sat two pairs of small brown feathers. Barely enough to carry someone even a foot, let alone over a forest. "These are called Chimera Feathers. I always keep a few on me in case I ever have to get somewhere quickly. If we use these, they can fly us to any town we've been to before."

I stared at them a little skeptically. "And how does one use these?" I asked. "They seem a bit on the small side."

"Let's go outside, and I'll show you," she answered.

I shrugged, and helped her look for a way outside. Thankfully, there was a door directly across the hallway from the room we were in that led to a small ledge overlooking the ruins. Outside, it appeared that most of the storm clouds had dissipated, and the starry night could be seen.

"This is perfect," Jessica said. "Watch what I do." She took one pair of Chimera wings and held them in her palm. "Just give them the smallest amount of magic, and they'll activate." She held her arm out and her hand glowed ever so slightly. Suddenly, the wings disappeared from her palm and reappeared on her back, many times larger. She jumped off the ledge, and her new wings propelled her into the air, several feet above me. "There," she said, "no problem. Now you try."

I looked at the tiny wings in my hand, still slightly unsure about this, but I decided to get over it. I quickly sent some magic down my arm, and I too soon had a pair of wings on my back. Granted, they weren't as great as my old pair, but they'd do for now.

I quickly joined Jessica in the air, who was smiling at me. "Let's hurry back to Stornway," she said. "I'm exhausted, and I'm hoping that Erinn has an open room for us." I agreed, and the wings quickly flew us back to the entrance of Stornway, where they dissolved upon landing. Without wasting a second, we hurried over to the inn, where we quickly got a room and both collapsed on our own beds, completely exhausted.

* * *

**Well...I definitely hope it was worth the wait. That's all I'm going to say about it.**

**Now, let's talk about the current status of the ongoing contest. As of now, I have decided where and how the third party member is going to join in, so you can stop making suggestions for that one and focus on the other now. I...kind of combined a couple different suggestions to come up with the plan that I'm implementing, so bear with me on this one. Also, I'm not going to say which people I chose until after the fact so that nothing can possibly be spoiled by accident. Anyway, here are the rules for the contest again:**

**1\. I have already decided most of the defining traits of the other party member. Your job is only to describe how they meet Michael.**

**2\. In your suggestion, please include the place where it takes place and how exactly the meet. The gender and vocation don't necessarily have to match, but it would definitely make things a lot easier on my part.**

**3\. Your suggestion CANNOT take place in the next chapter, because, at that point, it's too late to change that part of the plot.**

**Any rule found in the last chapter not found here is no longer valid because a) it no longer matters, or b) it was a stupid rule.**

**And, as with every other chapter, please point out any typos, errors, or inconsistencies that you notice in this chapter. I'm not perfect, but that doesn't mean I can't try to be.**

**If you like what you have read, please follow, favorite, and review. It means a lot to me to hear from you guys.**

**Until next time, this has been D~F.**


	8. Act 1 - Part 7: Spoils and Secrets

**Yay! We're back! I'm so sorry that this chapter took so long. I blame a combination of high school, video games, Netflix, YouTube, other FanFics, and online comic strips. But now I'm back, and we have another chapter for you to read. Is it any good? Who knows? I think so, but who knows what you'll think?**

**This chapter is pretty much pure character development, except for a little bit of action in the first half of the chapter. Also, this chapter gets a little emotional, which may make it extremely unbearable for some people to read as, being a robot, I'm terrible at writing emotion.**

**Anyway, allow me to pretty much sum up everything that happened between chapters: Smash Brothers! Pokemon! School! Halloween! Thanksgiving! Christmas! Valentine's Day! St. Patrick's Day! Easter! Memorial Day! Xenoblade Chronicles! Papers! Presentations! Exams! Colleges! Graduation! This Story's One Year Anniversary! And, I'm pretty sure that that sums up my life in the past few months pretty well.**

**Anyway, here's the disclaimer:**

_**Dragon Quest IX **_**is property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.**

**What I do own are the characters that I make up, such as Michael and Jessica and some of the crazy things that happens around them.**

**And here are the reviews:**

**Yurei Hanatsuki: I'm actually pretty excited for college at this point. That's a pretty good suggestion. Is Merrill your cat? Thanks for the moral support.**

**princessdaisy01: I'm glad you caught the _Frozen _reference. I forgot that I wrote the last chapter while it was still relevant. I bet most people couldn't wait for this chapter.**

**JohnyGhostFace: I'm glad I meet your tough standards. Interesting idea, may consider it. Thanks for the interesting fact. That was one pun that I missed while playing through the game.**

**Olivia: Not a terrible idea. It made plenty of sense. I'm glad that you looooove it. Yes, I suppose it would be weird, wouldn't it?**

* * *

_Act 1 - Part 7: Spoils and Secrets_

(Michael's POV)

The next morning, we hurried to the castle to report to the king. The grand beauty of the castle was a welcome sight after the decrepit setting of last night's events.

"Ah, it's you!" King Schott exclaimed when we entered the throne room and bowed in greeting. "Good to see you! Simona's told me everything." He shifted awkwardly in his throne. "Sounds like that Wight Knight was having a tough old time of it. I feel a wee bit guilty in hindsight." He paused for a moment.

"Still, all's well that ends well. You did a braw job there. I'm impressed! Aye, and you more than deserve that reward I promised. You just help yourself. Take all of it if you want to! Just climb the stairs behind the throne and go outside. East from there you'll see the treasure chamber."

He suddenly seemed to remember something. "Crivvens!" he exclaimed. "I almost forgot! I've opened up the eastern checkpoint again. It was closed while all that stramash with the Wight Knight was going on. There's a bid town beyond the checkpoint. Could be an interesting place to visit on your travels."

He looked around the room. "Aye, well…" he murmured. During the pause, Simona smiled and bowed to us, which surprised me. "I hope you have a safe journey," the king said. "And maybe you'll stop in Stornway again sometime? You'll always be welcome here!"

Jessica and I bowed. "Thank you, King Schott," I said.

"Thank _you_," Simona returned, "for everything."

I smiled. "It was our pleasure," I replied. "Now, if you excuse us, we must be going." King Schott nodded, and Jessica and I headed up another flight of stairs.

On the way to the treasure room, I noticed that Jessica had a new spring in her step. It didn't appear to have come from the prospect of treasure or the feeling of a job well done, but from the news about the reopened checkpoint in the east. The big city that King Schott had mentioned had to be the place that Jessica had called her hometown, and the place where her parents live – Coffinwell. It seemed the possibility of seeing her parents again had made Jessica more excited than I had ever seen her. Seeing her like this made me feel a little guilty about what would happen once the Starflight started working again…

We quickly found our way to the treasure chamber, and, upon entering, we were dumbstruck by the amount of treasure sitting before us. I mean, I've seen a fair amount of valuable objects back in my day, but damn… This was pretty impressive. There were gold coins strewn in piles all over the floor, treasure chests sitting between the piles, and hundreds of jewels scattered throughout the entire room. We slowly made our way farther into the room and began looking through the treasures.

Inside one of the treasure chests, Jessica found a solid gold rosary amongst other pieces of jewelry. "I have a friend who would love this!" she happily explained to me, noticing the odd look I was giving her since a mage normally has no use for something used by priests.

In one of the back corners, I found a small vial filled with an orange liquid. "Aggressence," I said to myself, pocketing it. "That could come in handy." We spent a few more minutes looking around at the various treasures, and we both took a fair amount of gold coins to go shopping with before leaving the room.

Back outside, we decided to spend the rest of the day in Stornway, shopping and relaxing. As we headed towards the many stores in town, I let Jessica get ahead of me as Stella appeared to talk with me. "Nice one, Michael! Looks like everyone here thinks you're the flea's knees know! See! Check it out! Benevolessence as far as the eye can see!" I looked all around me, but I frowned when I couldn't see a single blue crystal. "Oops!" Stella said. "I forgot you can't see it! What a flapping idiot! I'm sure the Almighty will notice what you've been up to now, anyway. We'll be back to the Observatory in no time, you'll see!'

After Stella said that, I felt another wave of guilt roll over me, even more powerful than before. While watching Jessica happily search through a rack of magic-resistant dresses, I reminisced about all the fun we had in just the last two days, and realized that, for the first time, I might not really want to go back at all.

* * *

That night, I was lying on my bed, waiting for Stella to give the signal. She had decided that it was best to return to the Starlight in the middle of the night, while everyone was sleeping. Already, the moon was high in the sky, and all of the sounds of the kingdom outside had completely subsided, save for some crickets in the grass and the sound of Jessica's soft breathing coming from across the room.

When she decided that it was safe enough, Stella appeared next to my bed, already looking rather impatient. "Come on! Come on! The coast is clear! Let's go already!"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't worry," I whispered in response, really not wanting to wake Jessica. "I'm coming." When I sat up, however, my heart froze as the bed made an extremely loud creaking sound. I glanced towards Jessica, who rolled over in her sleep, but, thankfully, stayed asleep.

"Keep it down, will ya!" Stella yelled at me carelessly. I wanted to scold her for being much louder than I was; but, not wanting to risk making more noise, I simply rolled my eyes.

Finally off the bed, I gently grabbed my bag and silently crept to the door. Halfway through the doorway, I looked back one last time at Jessica's sleeping form, before turning away and softly closing the door. I paused for a moment, thinking I might have heard something, before looking both ways down the deserted hallway. I quickly ran downstairs to the lobby, where Erinn was passed out on the counter. Being careful not to wake her, I slid out of the inn and quickly headed out the gate of the kingdom, heading back towards the west.

* * *

(No One's POV)

A dark figure stood at the edge of a window in the inn, looking down at Michael as he left. "Where is he going...?" the figure asked itself.

* * *

(Michael's POV)

It wasn't long before we reached the mountain pass where the Starflight sat, illuminated by the moonlight. Stella flew over to it to better inspect it. "Hang on a minute!" she exclaimed. "The Starflight looks exactly the flapping same! I was sure we'd have given it a new lease on life by now… If the Almighty had noticed all out good work and decided to help out, it'd be all glowing…I can't have gotten the wrong end of the gearshift on this one, can I?"

I was just as stumped as she was, so I just stood there, thinking, until I got an idea. "What if," I asked, "I have to be on it for it to work?"

Stella shook her head. "No, that wouldn't be it," she replied. "But, maybe, if you were to go on it, it might work. Let's give it a shot." I rolled my eyes as she flew up to the back door of the Starflight. I walked up behind her as she opened the door and flew inside. "I don't believe it!" Stella cried out. "It all looks exactly the flapping same! And after we went to all that trouble...has the Almighty decided to turn a blind ear to us or something?"

I simply shrugged as I climbed up the short staircase and stepped into the Starflight Express. As soon as my foot touched the carpeted interior, everything quickly flashed brightly as the Starflight gave a single almighty lurch. "Yikes!" Stella screamed, flailing her arms and legs every which way.

"Stella," I yelled out, clutching to the doorway to stop myself from falling, "why are you acting like you lost your balance!? You can FLY!"

She glared daggers at me while trying to regain her composure. "Shut up, okay!? That freaked me out just now. What was that? The entire thing moved when you came in just then..." Her eyes lit up in sudden realization. "...When you came in! That's it! That's it, Michael! The Benevolessence you got from helping that knight has given you back some of your Celestrian powers!"

She crossed her arms smugly for figuring it out. "It looks like my first instinct didn't stink after all! The Starflight will fly if she has a Celestrian on board!" She turned towards the front, deep in thought. "But first you need to help people so you can get your powers back...get back all of your powers and we'll have the old girl flying like a dream again!"

She turned back to me with a victorious look on her face. "We'd better flat-foot it to that town beyond the checkpoint. I bet it's cram-packed with people in need of our help!" She fist-bumped the air. "Woohoo! There's hope at last! Time to disembark on a mission of mortal mercy! Ha ha!" She then noticed that I was ignoring her and was instead looking around outside. "Hey, Michael!" she yelled at me. "What are you looking at that's so much more important than what I'm saying?"

I looked around the area one last time before replying. "I don't know. I thought I may have seen something outside."

"Don't be ridiculous," Stella replied. "There's nothing out there. It's the middle of the night. Even most of the monsters are sleeping at this point."

"I don't know, Stella. I swear I saw something move in the shadows."

"You can't even see Benevolessence! Why should I trust anything that your eyes see?" I remained silent. "That's what I thought. Now let's get back to Stornway before anyone realizes that you're gone."

I followed Stella out of the Starflight, feeling that it might already be too late for that.

* * *

(No One's POV)

As Michael began walking back through the mountain pass, the shadowy figure stood concealed within the leaves of a tree, watching him.

'_What are you up to?_' the figure thought to itself when Michael began to pass underneath the tree. The figure didn't have much time to think, though, as everyone's attention was suddenly attracted to the sharp sound of cracking wood.

'_Uh-oh._'

* * *

(Michael's POV)

I was heading back to Stornway when a branch suddenly fell from a nearby tree and landed right in front of me. It nearly gave me a heart attack. Not the branch – I had heard it falling. What surprised me was who had fallen with the tree branch.

"Uh... Hey, Jessica."

Jessica was lying among the splintered wood and fallen leaves, dazed from her sudden fall, but she quickly pulled herself together when she heard me talking. "Oh! Hey Michael. Um..."

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," she answered.

"I asked you first."

Jessica crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Fine. I was following you. Of course, the real question is where exactly was I following you to?"

"...I...was going for a walk. That's it." Stella facepalmed herself.

Jessica raised her eyebrows. "Really? A walk?" She looked back towards the distant horizon, where Stornway could barely be seen in the pale moonlight. "Kind of far for a walk, don't you think? Especially at this time of night. Wouldn't you agree, Michael?"

"Um...Well, I was feeling really restless, and...um...I guess I didn't notice how far I had actually walked."

"May the Almighty help you, Michael," Stella said from next to me. "Even this girl isn't dumb enough to believe your story."

"Shut up."

Stella and I both froze. Did I really hear what I thought I heard? That's not possible, is it?

I glanced over at Jessica and I saw that she was covering her mouth with her hands as if trying to keep her words inside her head. I noticed that her eyes were wide open in fright and were darting back and forth between me and...slightly to my left, were Stella hovered in midair.

"Jessica," I asked softly, seriously hoping that I was hearing things, "who are you talking to?"

"...Um...you?" she barely managed to reply.

"I can't believe this!" Stella suddenly cried out, flying in between me and Jessica. "What are you thinking, Michael? That this poor little girl can actually see and hear me? Don't be ridiculous! She's only a mortal, for Almighty's sake!"

Before I could respond to Stella, a faint whisper came from behind her. "Actually, I can see and hear you...Stella...and I would prefer if you stopped insulting me..."

Stella froze in place again and slowly turned around to face Jessica. After staring at her for a few moments, Stella screamed and rocketed away from Jessica and hid behind me. "Th-that's not normal! I-I'm just g-going to stay over here until you're d-done dealing with it!"

I turned back towards Jessica, who looked terrified at this point. "Jessica, can you really see Stella?" She only nodded her head.

For the first time ever, Jessica looked genuinely scared and upset. Even more so than the whole ordeal after the battle against the Right Knight. Wait... "Jessica, having the ability to use wind magic wasn't your big, terrifying secret, was it?" She shook her head. "I thought so."

We just stood in silence for a while after that, Jessica keeping her head down. I tried moving towards her, but she shot up and ran away from me as fast as she could as soon as I moved. Even with my Celestrial speed, it still took me half the distance back to Stornway to catch up with her, cursing mortals' natural affinity with adrenaline the entire time.

"Jessica!" I yelled to her. "Why are you running?"

"So you don't have to be scared of me anymore," she cried out between sobs.

"W-what?" I replied, taken slightly aback. "Why would I be scared of you?"

"Because I see things that I shouldn't, and that scares people!" she screamed at me, before completely collapsing onto the ground in tears.

I got onto the ground next to her and lifted her up so she was looking at me. "So what?" I asked. "That still doesn't explain why I would be scared of you."

"I saw how you and Stella reacted to me," she mumbled, pushing me away. "It was exactly how everyone did when they discovered my secret, too: sheer panic and terror, or speechless fear and confusion."

"Well, I mean, Stella is kind of a jerk, but she has been fairly high strung lately, and this probably just freaked her out."

"Yeah?" Jessica scoffed. "And what about you?"

"The only time I have ever been scared of you was in the Doomingale Forest, when you punched me in the face and I flew 20 feet into a pool of poison. Other than that, I'm not afraid of you. I was only surprised that someone else could see Stella, too.

"It's not just Stella, though. I can see other things, too, like ghosts, the occasional angel-person, the weird box thing you walked into earlier, and when the sky exploded last week."

"When the sky exploded?" I repeated, amazed.

"Yeah... I totally lost my mind when I saw that happen. That's why my last team abandoned me. They thought I was a raving lunatic for screaming into the sky, and they didn't want to deal with me and recovering from the earthquake that happened at the same time." I remained silent while trying to wrap my head around everything that she was saying to me.

She then glanced up at me and said "You probably think I'm crazy now, too."

"Of course not," I replied. She scoffed at me again. "Does anyone else know about your abilities?" I asked.

She thought silently for a moment, and then answered "Yes. Excluding everyone who thinks that I am crazy, three people actually know my secret: my parents and my best friend from when I grew up in Coffinwell." She paused for a moment before continuing. "For everyone else who gets too curious about my secret, I just show them my wind magic and leave it at that. It usually works for a little while."

"I guess I make number four, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

After that, we just kind of stood there in an awkward silence for a while. Then I noticed Stella secretly watching us from behind a bush, and something suddenly occurred to me. "Jessica," I began, "if you were always able to see Stella, then how come you never reacted whenever Stella said something to me? I mean, she was practically screaming at me the entire time."

"I resent you for that, Michael!" Stella said from behind her bush.

Jessica smiled and sighed. "Practice," she said. "After trying to hide it for a while, you just get used to ignoring things that you know aren't supposed to be there. As you saw earlier, I do occasionally make a mistake, though. Well, you know how that usually ends up."

"Wow," was all that I could find in response to that.

"Yeah."

"Some mortals really suck, huh?" I asked, somewhat jokingly.

"Yeah...Wait, what? 'Mortals'?" Jessica asked. My breath caught in my throat as I realized what I just said. Jessica narrowed her eyes and looked at me, then glanced over at Stella – who had slowly rejoined us at this point – then back to me. "Michael, something just occurred to me, and I need to ask you about it."

Please, please, please don't be what I think it-

"Why can you see Stella?"

Shit. "Um...Same reason as you?" I tried, but I could tell that Jessica didn't believe it for a second. Plus, it didn't help that Stella facepalmed herself after I said that.

"That's a lie, Michael, and we both know it," Jessica responded. "I've heard some of the conversations you've had with Stella. You're looking for something called Benevolessence, right? And trying to get back to some place called the Observatory, aren't you? What's that all about?"

"Uh..." is all that I said.

"Oh, give it up, Michael," Stella interjected suddenly. "There's no way out of it at this point. She knows too much already. You either have to tell her or you have to kill her." Jessica and I both gaped at her, left speechless by what she just said. She looked at both us and shrugged. "What? I'm just saying."

I groaned despairingly. "Fine..." I sighed. "You might want to sit down, Jessica. What I'm about to tell you is going to be so long, it would take at least seven chapters to write it all down, so we're going to be here for a while."

Jessica lowered herself on the grass and looked back at me expectantly. "I'm all ears, Michael."

I sighed one last time, then began to tell my story. "For years, mortals have always wondered if they are being watched by higher beings..."

* * *

"...And then I told you to sit on the ground and I began telling you my story. And, I think that pretty much sums everything up. Satisfied?"

Jessica stared at me, nodding slowly. "So, what you're telling me is that you are a fallen angel trying to collect enough crystallized emotion to power up a magic metal box that will fly you back up to the floating tower that you and all of your angel friends live on because a self-absorbed fairy told you how to do it?"

"Self-absorbed, _and_ beautiful, thank you very much," Stella corrected.

"Whatever," Jessica replied. "Am I right, Michael?"

"Uh...Yeah."

"I see," she said, continuing to slowly nod her head up and down. "Hm...Well, I believe you."

"Wait, really!?" I exclaimed in surprise.

"Sure. I mean, why not? You believed me, and no one is crazy enough to make up a story that fantastic. And, even if you are crazy enough, it just means that I'm just as crazy; and I'd rather that not be the case. Plus, it explains why the sky exploded a week ago, and I don't have any other explanation for it."

"Huh," I responded. "I guess it makes sense when you put it that way."

"Yup. Now, let's head back to Stornway. I'm exhausted, and the sun will be rising soon, partly because your story was so long."

"Hey," I retorted, "you wanted to know who I really was. Not my fault that you asked me at three in the morning."

"Well, then maybe you shouldn't have kept it a secret from me," she countered, smirking.

"Yeah? What about your secret? When were you going to tell me that?"

She just stared at me for a few moments, and then suddenly stuck her tongue out at me and began running rapidly back towards Stornway, laughing all the way.

"What is it with everyone and running everywhere!?" I asked rhetorically, chasing Jessica all the way back to the Quester's Rest, where we snuck back in quietly past Erinn, who was still sleeping on the counter.

As I lay back in bed, I quietly mumbled to myself "Maybe this is all just a bad dream, and I'll wake up tomorrow and everything will be back to normal."

From behind me, I heard Stella mumble back in response "You wish."

I rolled my eyes and went back to sleep, hoping for a fairly normal day tomorrow.

* * *

**Well, there you go. I hope it was well worth the wait.**

**Next chapter, the new character will finally be revealed, as will be whoever (if anyone) won the suggestion contest. I don't remember if I had said there was going to be a prize, but I don't think so.**

**Anyway, you can still try to make suggestions for the fourth and final party member, but I feel that it'll be quite difficult for anyone to beat what I'm already planning in my mind. But, hey, you never know.**

**When will the next chapter be out? I have no idea, but it'll hopefully be before next February. #JokingNotJoking #SadTruth**

**Anyway, don't forget to favorite, follow, and review. I'm not perfect, and I'll need everyone's help if I'm to catch every little error that shows up in my story.**

**Until next time, this has been D~F.**


	9. Act 1 - Part 8: A Sickening Feeling

**Holy Alleluia, it's a new chapter! Who here saw this coming today? Not me, that's for sure. Well, I suppose I did see it coming earlier today when I decided to finish writing the chapter. Last week, though? Pfft. Not at all. At least I posted this chapter before February, like I said I hoped I would at the end of the last chapter. Still, seven months is a long time. Sorry about that. Actually, ****it has been so long since I last posted a chapter that I don't even remember what I usually put up here. Just give me a second to look it up.**

**...**

**Okay, I figured it out. Anyway, college is working out pretty well so far. Did I mention that I was in college now? No, probably not. The previous chapter did mention that I had graduated high school, so I guess it would have been a safe assumption to think that I was in college now. Whatever. You guys don't care about that, anyway. You guys are here because you probably received a notification that there is a new chapter added to this story, and that's what you want to read, not my stupid ramblings about my life. **

**I do hope that you guys really enjoy this chapter. Not much in-game progress in this chapter, but this chapter is still extremely important for the story overall for a number of reasons. It was hard to write, though. There's a lot of emotional drama in this chapter. Like, A LOT! As an emotionless robot, that wasn't very easy for me to write. I tried a new style of writing for one section. I'm not sure how I did, but I think that I did good. Or not. I don't know. You guys let me know how I did.**

**Speaking of the story, part of the reason that this chapter took so long is that I've started a new run of DQIX, and I'm going to be using it as a reference guide for the foreseeable future. Granted, it's not like I had that much to play up to, but that's the excuse I'm going with. Well, that, and, of course, college, but I digress.**

**Anyway, the third main character is revealed in this chapter. I'm sure you've all been waiting anxiously for their reveal. Well, the wait is now over. As soon as you finish reading this unnecessarily long author's note and about half the chapter, something should be revealed. Now, I hope you all actually remember that I held some kind of contest/suggestion box for helping me decide how to incorporate the other two party members. Well, I'm happy to announce that there are actually three winners this time. All three people described very similar scenarios, and I decided to go with some kind of combination of the three. The three winners, in order of when they posted their reviews, are Master of Red Windex, Nothing on here, and Yurei Hanatsuki. Congratulations! You three all win the satisfaction that you helped write part of this story. And, if you want, if you Google a picture of a cookie, you can have that, too.**

**My goodness. What else do I have to say before I can let you read the actual chapter? Oh. It's just the disclaimer and the reviews. Very good. I'll just add those right here, and I'll see you guys in 20-30 minutes at the bottom of the page. I hope you like the chapter!**

**Disclaimer**

_**Dragon Quest IX **_**is property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.**

**What I do own are the characters that I make up, such as Michael, Jessica, and the new person in this chapter and some of the crazy things that happens around them.**

**Reviews:**

**Uchiha Orion: Yes, yes, I know. Forced drama = Bad. The wind magic really was her big secret. Then I realized that that was actually a terrible idea, so I rewrote the next few chapters to undo that and give her a new secret. As for your suggestion, I appreciate the effort that you put into it, but I just don't think that I could get it to fit in with the rest of the story as I have it planned so far.**

**LuckyMoonWriter: Hashtags Shmeshtags.**

**Shadow of the Dragons: Here you go! I wrote more of this story. I blame the high quality on my perfectionism. Unfortunately, that means that each chapter will take longer that I would like to write. It's an unfortunate relationship, to be sure.**

**Rosalynne Myers: Thanks for letting me know about the point of view error in one of the earlier chapters. As for the repetition of the same phrase in two different chapters, I'm sorry. I understand what you're saying, but I don't think that that's really that big of a problem. I apologize if you disagree with me about this.**

**I'm Sorry: I suppose you don't really want a response to this review, do you?**

* * *

_Act 1 – Part 8: A Sickening Feeling_

(Michael's POV)

By the time I woke up the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky. I wasn't surprised, though, given everything that had happened last night. All things considered, the outcome was much better than I had expected.

Specifically, I wasn't punched in the face again.

As I was getting ready for whatever it was that I was going to do today, Jessica began to stir. "Morning," I greeted.

"Mehrning," she responded groggily, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "I had the weirdest dream where..."

"It wasn't a dream," I interrupted, predicting what she was about to say.

"Excuse me?"

"Whatever you were dreaming, it really happened," I explained.

"Really?" she asked. "I really went swimming in a lake filled with chocolate Slimes last night?"

I just stared at her for a second before quickly standing up and leaving the room, smacking myself the entire way down the stairs.

* * *

(Jessica's POV)

Seeing how easy it was to mess with Michael, I couldn't help but snicker. As I started to calm myself down and get out of bed, a familiar faerie materialized next to me.

"Good morning, Stella."

"Hmph," is all she said in response.

I raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so grumpy today?"

"What you did to Michael just now was mean," she explained.

"Nah. It was just a joke. I'm sure he understands."

"It was still mean of you."

I looked at her and crossed my arms. "You mess with Michael all the time. Admit it, you thought this was hilarious."

Stella looked nervously to the floor. "N-no...I didn't th-" She then burst out laughing hysterically. "Yes! You're right. It was beautiful. You got him so good. Did you see the look on his face? Hahah-" She suddenly caught herself and cleared her throat. "Regardless of how funny it is, stop teasing the poor guy. That's my job, and I tend to keep it that way."

I laughed. "Sorry, Stella, but I think you're going to need to find a new job." Stella huffed in irritation, and then flew out of the room much like Michael had done just a few minutes earlier. I just laughed to myself. "I wish everyday could be this fun."

* * *

(Michael's POV)

Half an hour after...that...happened, I still felt totally embarrassed about it. To cope, I was pretending to nap at one of the tables at the inn. I was joined, of course, by Stella, who came down a few minutes after me in a really bad mood. I didn't bother asking her what was wrong. She probably wouldn't tell me, anyway.

While we were brooding together, someone came over to talk with me. It was Erinn. "Michael, are you okay?"

I quickly sat up and pretended that nothing was wrong. "What? Oh, yeah. Everything's fine. I'm just...uh...just trying to rest a little while waiting for Jessica to come down." Stella snorted at the mention of Jessica, so I discretely flicked a crumb from the table at her. For some reason, she seemed to become even madder after that.

"Are you sure, Michael? You seem like you're moping for some reason."

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine. I'm just tired, is all." She raised an eyebrow incredulously. She obviously doubted my story.

"Whatever," she replied, shaking her head. Then she seemed to remember the original reason she came over to talk to me. "Anyway, everyone's talking about how the wandering minstrel Michael and his partner Jessica saved Stornway! You should hear them!" She paused for a second, then added "Actually, you probably already have. It's been a couple of days at this point, hasn't it?"

"Yeah…" I answered.

"Hm…Sorry for taking so long to congratulate you guys."

"It's fine, Erinn," I reassured her. "You've been really busy taking care of the inn."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." She continued with her original thought. "Besides, you've become quite the celebrity. I must say, I'm getting quite a lot of attention just because I'm friends with you!"

I smiled. "I'm happy that I could be of help once again."

"I knew you would be," she said, returning the smile. She began turning back towards her other duties when she suddenly remembered one last thing. "Oh, yes, before I forget, I found something when I was cleaning out the cellar." She pointed at an oddly shaped pot sitting on the counter. When I looked at it, I swore that it winked at me, which surprised me, since it didn't actually have any eyes. "Supposedly, it's a pot for doing alchemy in," Erinn explained. "Apparently, an impoverished alchemist left it to pay off his bill ages ago. I'm not really sure how you use it, actually, but it's a nice-looking thing, so I thought I'd pop it up here to brighten the place up a bit." She paused for a few seconds, staring at it, apparently taking in its…beauty. "…Oh, yes," she mused. "Very tasteful. It's beautifully made as well. Yep, I've got a good feeling about this old thing."

Stella, with were brilliant sense of style, looked at Erinn like she had completely lost her mind. I just slowly nodded in agreement until I noticed a familiar flash of red out of the corner of my eye. "Oh, look, here comes Jessica."

Erinn turned around and saw Jessica coming down the stairs. "Okay. I'll go get you guys some food, and then you guys can go out and do some more adventuring."

"Thanks, Erinn," I replied as she left and Jessica came over to the table that I was sitting at.

"Hey, Michael. How're you doing?"

"Fine. Why do you ask?"

Jessica smirked. "Well, it just looks like you had a terrible nightmare. Want to talk about it?"

"Well, actually…Oh, shut up," I responded, realizing what she was implying.

"For the love of the Almighty, I can't take these damn mortals anymore!" Stella cried out before finally disappearing back into wherever it is that she goes to. I just shook my head and groaned. This was going to be a very long day.

* * *

(Michael's POV)

We had just crossed over the eastern checkpoint over the river into the Coffinwell region. Almost immediately, the weather became much cooler. Glancing over at Jessica, I noticed that she didn't appear to be too affected by the sudden temperature change. After thinking about it for a moment, I realized that she's probably used to it since she grew up here. That would also explain why she seemed so relaxed right now.

As we continued walking down the path, the sun slowly started to drop through the sky, signaling how late in the afternoon it was getting. To pass the time, Jessica was giving me a crash course on the monsters that live in this region.

"One of the most important things you can remember is that you should never go near anything that looks like an abandoned cart," she lectured.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because that would be a Chariot Chappie, and they will kill you by running through you with their dual spears."

"Ah. Yes, that would be bad. Thanks for the advice."

"No problem. Also, beware of large, spiky, orange plants."

"Why? Are those also monsters?"

"Yes, they are Leafy Larrikins, and if they spot you, they won't stop chasing you until they get you."

"Good to know." I looked up and saw the sun was getting ever closer to the horizon. "How much farther until we reach Coffinwell?" I asked.

"Not long now," she answered. "Look over there in the distance. See the small hill with walls around it? That's Coffinwell."

I looked, and sure enough, there was what appeared to be a town at the end of the path. I could even start to see a few lights popping up within the walls. "Awesome. Let's hurry up so we can get there sooner."

She nodded in agreement. "Alright. I'll race you there." I chuckled to myself and started running after her. No longer having to hide my true strength, I quickly overtook Jessica, who called out after me. "Hey! No fair! You can't us your Celestial powers!"

"You never said I couldn't," I called back. "Besides, you're the one that challenged me to a race." She huffed in indignation in response.

After a few minutes, we had both cut the distance to Coffinwell to a mere fraction of what it was earlier. However, as I got closer to the city, something seemed to start bothering me. I stopped running and looked up at the walls of the city, which were now close enough to shroud me in their long evening shadows. Jessica caught up to where I was standing after a minute and stopped next to me.

"What's wrong, Michael?" she asked.

"I don't know. My gut is just telling me that there is something very wrong going on around here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, just stop and listen for a moment. What do you hear?"

She stood silent for a minute, listening intently to her surroundings, before responding. "I don't hear anything."

"Exactly. We were able to hear the noises of Stornway from miles away, yet, here we are, standing next to Coffinwell, and we can't hear anything coming from inside."

Jessica thought about this for a moment, her face starting to pale. "Do you think something's wrong?"

"I don't know, but something's not right." I noticed that Jessica was starting to get panicked. "Come on," I said. "Let's get inside the city and see what's going on before we get too upset, okay."

She took a deep breath, and calmed herself down. "Okay. Let's go."

We walked through the entrance of the town, and I immediately knew that I was, unfortunately, right. The town was nearly completely silent. There were very few people outside, and none of them seemed to be in a good mood. Jessica and I just stood at the entrance for a few moments, looking around to see if we could figure out what had happened here.

As we stood there, a man standing nearby walked up to us, a grim look on his face. "I don't mean to speak out of turn," he said, "but I'd keep away from this place if I were you. Coffinwell's days are numbered, you mark my words. If you don't want to perish along with the rest of us, be on your way."

As he spoke, I noticed that Jessica had paled again. "What do you mean? What's going on?" she questioned.

The man turned towards her, and seemed to recognize her. "Jessica? Is that you? Oh, dear… I suppose it can't be helped, then." He then turned and walked away, leaving us both confused by his final cryptic message.

We both glanced at each other, the worry obvious on both our faces. As we did, I noticed something that made me more worried than before. Atop a small hill in the west side of town, sat a church. Next to it I saw something that made my heart drop. This couldn't be good.

* * *

(Jessica's POV)

I noticed that Michael was focusing on something behind me, so I turned around and found the local church. Outside of it stood two women. One was an older priestess dressed in the traditional blue gown while the other appeared to be a younger priestess with brown, shoulder-length hair, glasses, and an extremely modest yellow dress with a staff hanging over that back. I don't know why, but the second woman seemed familiar to me for some reason.

They both were facing away from us, having a quiet conversation. In front of them sat Coffinwell's graveyard. I could feel the blood leave my face when my eyes laid on it. Never in Coffinwell's history had the graveyard ever been that big. I looked back at Michael. He simply nodded, and we headed up the stairs towards the two women.

As we neared them, we were able to hear parts of their conversation.

"It looks like our lovely churchyard will be filled with new graves before long." the older woman exclaimed.

The young priestess appeared to be shocked by what she had just heard. "Don't say that! Dr. Phlegming will find a cure before long. We just need to remain hopeful."

The older woman smiled at her young companion. "My dear Allison, how I wish I could still think like you." I silently gasped. Did she say Allison? Could it really be? It has been so long… "But, I imagine mine will be- (cough cough) Ahem. Ahem. (cough)." Very suddenly, she starting coughing uncontrollably, and the younger priestess, Allison, quickly moved to support her. "Dear Almighty," the older woman said between coughs, "soon I will be returned unto You. (cough)"

They noticed our presence once we reached the top of the stairs. When Allison saw me, her face obtained a mixture of both surprise and horror. "Jessica? W-what are you doing here?" she asked, clearly caught off guard by my presence.

"Allison," I began in a chillingly calm voice. "What's going on here?"

Allison appeared to become extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Um…," she stalled, trying to find an answer. "It's better if you don't know, and you should probably just leave this place as fast as possible and never come back."

I stared at her for a few seconds, then crossed my arms and sternly replied "You've known me long enough to know that that isn't going to happen. Someone just told us that Coffinwell's days are numbered. What's going on? Tell me the truth!"

Allison bit her lip and looked towards the ground, clearly unsure of how to proceed. To her relief, her older companion, who had finally finished coughing, answered for her. "It's the contagion, my dear. It's tearing through the town. We've already lost so many people to the disease, and many more are on their way, myself included." I hadn't really noticed it before because I was so focused on Allison, but now that I looked closer at the older woman, I could see that she appeared extremely old and fragile, with lifeless eyes draped with deep bags that hung low down her gaunt face. She was definitely ill with something powerful. "If you really want to know more, my dears, I'd recommend that you go visit Mayor Laria–"

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Allison was slowly shuffling back towards the graves. Before the old priestess even had a chance to finish, I quickly spun towards Allison and loudly confronted her. "Allison!" I practically screamed at her. "Where are you going?" Allison's face bleached, clearly horrified that I had noticed her.

The priestess shook her head and sighed. "My dear Allison, sometimes you are just too good of a friend. However, this is something you just can't protect her from."

"Wait, what? Protect me from what?" I asked, confused.

"Allison, just let her find out. It's inevitable," the priestess ordered.

Allison sighed. "I wish you had just left when I told you to, Jessica. Everything would have been easier if you did." Allison began moving back to the left, then hesitated. "It's like she said," Allison added. "We've lost a lot of people to the disease."

"Allison," the priestess said firmly, "stop leaving her guessing. Just get out of the way and let her see it for herself."

Allison sighed once more. "I'm sorry, Jessica. I really am," she added as she did as her elder ordered. Once she was out of the way, my eyes quickly fell on the gravestone that she was blocking…

* * *

(Michael's POV)

Within seconds of Allison moving out of the way, Jessica ran up to the gravestone and collapsed in front of it. The sound of heavy sobbing mixed with waves of intense pain followed shortly after. I looked at the grave myself, already knowing what it was going to say.

**Here lies**

**William and Marissa**

**Loving parents of**

**Jessica**

**Taken too soon by**

**The Contagion**

Upon reading those words, my worst fears were confirmed. I looked back at the two women, both with somber expressions on their faces. "When?" I asked.

"A month ago," answered Allison.

"Ever since the earthquake, it has just been one heartbreak after another," the priestess added.

The earthquake. Was nothing spared from the consequences of that event so many weeks ago? Is any place left unscathed?

"Is there anything anyone can do to stop this?" I asked.

"Some people are trying to find ways to fight this," the priestess replied. "Allison here is an extremely skilled priestess, so she's been using all of her healing magic to treat those who have the disease. She even refused to return to Swinedimples Academy after the outbreak began at the end of her summer break."

Allison shook her head. "My skills are more needed here. Going to school is not a priority right now."

The older woman nodded in agreement. "Also, Mayor Laria is working with a scientist named Dr. Phlegming to find a true cure to the plague so that it can be rid of once and for all. They even managed to set aside their major disagreement in order to do so." She coughed, and paused a moment to catch her breath. "That's all I know about it. If you want to find out more, I'd go talk to Mayor Laria himself."

We all just stood there for a few minutes in silence, mourning for the loss of Jessica's parents. Jessica was still crying in front of the grave, but her sobbing had quieted down to a soft whimper. I couldn't imagine how much pain she had to be in right now. She had gone through so much emotional pain over the past few days. I honestly had no idea what was still keeping her together.

Eventually, the priestess broke the silence. "Allison, dear, it's getting late. Why don't you show these two where the inn is? You can take them to see the Mayor tomorrow morning."

"Yes, ma'am," Allison responded. She knelt down next to her grieving friend. "C'mon, Jessica. Let me take you to the inn so you can get some rest." No response came from Jessica except for continued sobbing.

Allison hung her head in exasperation, then looked back up at me with a pleading expression on her face. I nodded in understanding and softly walked towards Jessica, kneeling next to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Jessica. Look, I know you're upset. You have every right to be. I can't even begin to imagine how much pain you are in. I don't think that I ever will be able to, either. I'm sorry Jessica. I truly am. However, there is nothing that you can do at this point. Crying on their grave won't bring them back, and it won't accomplish much else either. At least let us take you to the inn. Once we get there, you can keep crying if you want, but at least you'll be somewhere safer at that point. And, if you want, you can even eat something and get some rest. Please, Jessica?"

There were a few seconds of silence after I had finished. Everyone present was watching Jessica to see how she would react to what I had said. After a moment, she lowered her head, took a deep breath, and slowly stood up. With her head still lowered, she very softly responded "Okay."

With a look of relief on her face, Allison gently grabbed Jessica's arm and pointed towards the center of Coffinwell. "The inn's over in that direction. You still remember where it is, don't you Jessica?" Jessica remained silent. Taking that as a yes, Allison began to softly guide her towards the inn. I made sure that I stayed close to her the entire time.

As we left the church courtyard, the priestess began walking towards the church. When she reached the front doors, she turned back to look at us. She saw me looking at her and smiled sadly back. Then she began coughing again. Still coughing, she stepped into the church, closing the doors behind her.

* * *

(Allison's POV)

Today did not go as I expected it to go. To be fair, I don't think anybody had expected today to go the way that it did. It certainly was a surprise to Jessica again after all of these years. I just wish that it could have been under better circumstances. I hope she doesn't hate me after today. I wouldn't blame her if she did, though.

Her companion seemed nice enough when I introduced myself as Jessica's childhood friend. What did he say his name was? Mark? No. Matthew? No, not that, either. It was something with an M. Martin-Max-Mitchel-Mike-Michael! That's what it was. I can't believe I almost forgot his name. That would have been embarrassing., Something about him bothers me, though. I'm not sure why, but I feel like he's hiding something. I wonder if Jessica knows what it is.

Hang on. What's that sound? It sounds like somebody is walking in the hallway outside. I wonder if can see who it is through the door to my room. The innkeeper is so generous to let me stay at the inn for free. I guess it's her way of repaying me for all of the help I've been trying to give around Coffinwell. Wait, what I am thinking? Focus on the task at hand, Allison. I know I'm tired, but that's no excuse to let my mind wander. Unless it wants to wander to sleep. That'd be nice. Why can't I go to sleep tonight? I guess I just have too much going on through my head right now.

Dang it, Allison! You let your mind wander again. Focus! Who's in the hallway? Let me see if I can see them through the side of the door. Oh! It's Michael. I wonder if he's having trouble sleeping, too. I suppose going for a walk wouldn't be a terrible idea if you couldn't sleep. Wait, is he actually talking to himself? It looks like it. Who else would he be talking to? I don't know. He's so weird.

How did Jessica even end up with this guy? I don't even begin to imagine. All I know is that I'm going back to bed. Huh. Was this room always this dark? Oh, whatever. I'm sure I can find my back to the bed anyway. Now, let me see. If I just take a couple of steps over here, I should be almost the-

"Ow!"

Oh, shit. Did he hear that? No, I don't think so. He's still walking away. Whew. That was close. What did I do? Kick a chair? By the Almighty, that hurts really bad. I need to be more careful when I can't see. Okay now, where's the bed. Ah, here it is. Maybe I can get some sleep if I just try to quiet my mind down. Right, like that'll happen. Well, I suppose it's worth a shot…

* * *

(Michael's POV)

"Did you here that, Michael?"

"Yeah. It sounded like someone just kicked a chair." I was in a middle of an important conversation with Stella when we heard someone shout in one of the nearby rooms.

"Kicked a chair?" Stella repeated. "Wingless creatures are such klutzes when it comes to using their legs. How can you stand having to use your legs in order to move around?"

I shrugged. "I guess you just get used to it after a while." She scoffed. "If you want, I could tear off your wings so you could share this wonderful experience with me."

Stella just stopped in midair and slowly turned towards me with a look a pure horror on her face. "Oh my Almighty, Michael! Talk about taking a joke way too far. I mean, where did that even come from?"

"I don't know. It just popped into my head."

Stella just stared at me, nodding her head wearily. "Alrighty then. If that's what you said happened, I'm not going to question it."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to tear off your wings, Stella."

"You better not," she responded. "You couldn't possibly imagine how much trouble you would be in if you did."

"I'll take your word for it. Anyway, we should get back to looking for Jessica. I have no idea where she could have gone at this time of night." I could only begin to imagine why she had decided to get up and leave in the middle of the night. It wasn't the most welcome of surprises to see that she wasn't in her bed when I happened to wake up while tossing in my sleep.

"Maybe she just doesn't want to be by you anymore, so she's trying to run away while you're sleeping," Stella suggested.

"Thank you, Stella, for that cheerful thought. Why on Protectorate would she be running away from me?"

"Well…" Stella started, "what you said to her while at the graveyard wasn't exactly the nicest thing you could have said."

I nodded in understanding. "Ah, I see. I understand what you mean. You're right, actually. What I said back then definitely was not the nicest thing I could have said to her at the time."

"Then why did you say it, Michael? You might have really hurt her feelings."

"No, Stella, I didn't. In fact, I did the exact opposite."

Stella just looked at me in disbelief. "What? How can you say that?"

I paused for a second, trying to figure out what the best way to explain this was. "You're right, Stella. I could have said something really nice. But, you know what? It wouldn't have done anything because she was stuck in a state of denial. True, she might have temporarily felt a little better, but the kind words would eventually lose their effect, and she would be left in the same state as before. Instead, I told her what she needed to hear so that she could begin to accept what had happened. Yes, she's still in pain, but at least now she's starting to come to terms with the past, instead of letting herself be consumed by it. I just…gave her a nudge in the right direction."

Stella just stared at me with her jaw dropped. "That…actually makes a lot of sense."

"Remember, Stella. I'm a Celestrian. It's practically my job to help people feel better. You should have better faith in me sometimes."

"Yeah…" Stella agreed, still speechless.

I smiled at her reaction. "C'mon, Stella, let's go. Jessica has to be around here somewhere. Let's try looking upstairs," I said as I started up the nearby staircase. Stella followed silently behind me.

* * *

(Jessica's POV)

Amazingly, Coffinwell was even more eerie and still at night than it was during the day. However, there is no denying that this is the place where I grew up. The view from on top of the inn was still the exact same as when I hung out up here as a child.

A small smile snuck its way onto my face as memories of sitting up here and spending whole afternoons just staring at the clouds and talking with Allison. Life was so simple back then.

A soft breeze blew its way across the rooftops. I took a deep breath, remembering the familiar smells from my childhood. This time, however, there was something slightly different about the smell. There was something else mixed in with it. It was a smell of sickness. Sickness and…death.

I could feel the tears starting to form in my eyes almost immediately after I thought that. I instinctively pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face in legs in order to muffle the sounds of my sobbing.

"Mom…Dad…" I managed to get out through my tears. "Why did you have to leave me? Why did you have to go so soon?" I continued to cry for a few more minutes without saying anything. "I never even got to say goodbye to you guys. Now…now I'm all alone." A few more minutes went by where I didn't say anything. "Why, Almighty? Why? Why did you take them from me? Haven't I suffered enough in my life?" A few more moments of silence. The flow of tears began to slow. "Does anybody even care about me anymore?"

As the tears finally stopped streaming down my face, I heard something moving from behind me. I didn't care what it was, though, so I just stayed in my current position, with my face hidden between my legs. It wasn't until I sensed someone sitting down next to me and put their arm around me that I finally lifted my head to see who was with me.

It was Michael.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at me.

"Oh, yes," I snapped back. "I'm just splendid. Thanks for asking,"

"I'm sorry. That was a pretty stupid question to ask." I just rolled my eyes. "Anyway, what are you doing out here?"

I sighed. "I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get some fresh air. This is where I always came whenever I needed to escape life and just relax for a little bit as a child. Unfortunately, coming up here dragged up more memories than I could handle right now." Even in the low light, I'm sure that he could easily see the paths that the tears had left on cheeks.

Suddenly, he used the arm he already had across my back to pull me into a half hug, completely catching me off guard. "I know that this has been really hard for you," he said, "but I want you to know that I will always be there to support you."

After he said that, I started to cry again, although it was for a slightly different reason than earlier. "Thank you, Michael," I responded. "You don't know how much that means to me." He just smiled in response and pulled me in a little closer.

I'm not sure how long we stayed in that position, looking out over the town, but I didn't really care anyway. At some point, the wind carried a small amount of fog from the nearby mountains. When it reached us, the temperature dropped quite a bit, and I started to shiver, which Michael noticed. "C'mon," he said. "Let's get back inside. We should probably try to get some sleep anyway." I only nodded as I let him guide me back to the room where we were staying for the night. I was still sad deep inside, but I found I could tolerate the pain a little better knowing that I could always rely on Michael when I needed him. With that thought in mind, I was able to easily relax once I had gotten into my bed. Sleep quickly followed.

* * *

(Michael's POV)

It was morning again, and I was trying to eat some breakfast while waiting for Jessica to wake up. It was kind of hard to do so, though, because Allison, who was also up already, kept staring at me strangely, and it was really starting to bother me. I was actually about to ask her stop when Jessica finally stepped into the room.

Allison greeted her before I was able to. "Good morning, Jessica. How'd you sleep?"

Jessica shrugged in response. "Okay, I guess." I swear I heard something that sounded like Allison mentioning how lucky she was or something under her breath. "Actually, I still feel a little exhausted," Jessica continued. "My muscles feel a little stiff, too. I must have slept funny last night."

Allison's eyebrows raised a little when she said that. "How are you feeling, Jessica?"

"Fine, I suppose. I can't really compla-" Jessica cut herself off when she suddenly sneezed. And then sneezed a second time. And a third time after that. "Sorry about that," she apologized. "I guess something got up my nose."

At this point, Allison seemed really nervous, although it looked like she was trying to remain calm. "Well, why don't you take a seat and eat something?" Allison offered. "I'm sure you'll feel better afterwards. Here, have a glass of juice." Allison handed Jessica a glass of orange juice.

"Thanks," Jessica replied, gratefully accepting the glass. However, right before she took a sip of it, she suddenly started strongly coughing. Almost immediately, Allison jumped out of her seat and rushed to Jessica's side.

"Almighty, please no," Allison practically begged while helping her friend catch her breath. "Not you, too, Jessica."

I just looked at the two of them for a couple of moments, trying to figure out what Allison was talking about. However, it very quickly dawned on me. "Oh, no. Not that. Anything but that."

Jessica had finally caught her breath again, and was now frantically looking back and forth between Allison and myself. "What?" she asked, panicked. "Not what? What's wrong with me?"

"Jessica," Allison began to explain, struggling to remain calm, "you…you caught the Contagion."

* * *

**Well, there you have it. One more chapter that I hope you all enjoyed. Was it worth the long wait?**

**What do you guys think of the new character, Allison? I feel like I did a pretty good job of introducing her; but, again, I usually have no idea what I'm talking about, so I need you guys to let me know in the reviews what you thought of her, as well as the chapter in general.**

**Of course, the contest/suggestion box thingy is still in effect for the fourth and final character. As I currently have it planned out, it's going to be a very long time until they appear. Like, over halfway through Act 2. Of course, if you guys can come up with a better introduction for them than I currently have, I'd love to hear it. Just leave your idea in your review. Remember, I already have name, gender, vocation, and personality decided. All you guys have to do is come up with a way for me to introduce them into the story. Of course, you can add more details if you want. You never know what might make me change my mind.**

**When will the next chapter be released? I have no idea, but I would love to be able to add a chapter on April 12th, which happens to be this story's second anniversary of being published. No promises, though. That's only four months away, and I currently don't have the best record at updated in a timely fashion.**

**Before I leave, though, I just want to thank all of you for your patience with me. I know that the gap between chapters is far too long. I also know that you guys say that it's always worth the wait and that my personal life is more important than this story. I just feel so bad when I have a half-finished chapter sitting on my computer and it has been months since the last update. For those of you who have been following me for a while now, thank you for your continued faith in me and your patience when waiting for chapters. For those of you who have just started following this story, thank you for taking a leap of faith in choosing to follow a story that had sat dormant for so long. You guys really are the best readers that I could have hoped for. Whew. I just needed to get that off of my chest.**

**Anyway, don't forget to favorite, follow, and review. As always, I'm not perfect when it comes to writing, so if anyone finds an error somewhere in this chapter or anywhere else in the story, please don't hesitate to mention it in your review or send me a quick message. I'll try to fix the problem as soon as possible. If I'm to catch every little error that shows up in this story, I'm going to need everyone's help.**

**Until next time, whenever that happens to be, this has been D~F.**


	10. Act 1 - Part 9: From Bad to Worse

**Hey, look! Another chapter! What? Already? It's only been three months! What blasphemy is this? Actually, this chapter is technically late. I would have tried to get this chapter ready by the story's two-year anniversary on April 12th, but I didn't. To be fair, though, I did have a Calculus II exam, a C++ exam, a physics quiz, and a presentation to prepare during that same week, so, yeah... But, hey! It's here now, and that's what matters, right? Plus, it means that I had more time to write more for this chapter. "How much more?" you may ask. Well, compared to this chapter, the previous chapter, which was previously the longest chapter, is adorably minuscule. Give or take a slight exaggeration. Also, I probably worked more quickly than usual as I have recently discovered a YouTube video where the entire Dragon Quest IX soundtrack is played on piano. It's beautiful. I recommend that everyone go and look it up as soon as possible.  
**

**After two straight chapters that were practically nothing but pure character development, this chapter marks the point where plot finally happens again! YAAAAAAAY! That means that we've finally reached the point where it should be easier to write more and get more chapters out faster (No promises). The end of Act 1 should be in about two chapters, so we have that to look forward to. Also, we shouldn't have anywhere near this much character development again until the final party member is introduced. Remember, I'm still taking suggestions for how they should enter into the story. Remember, not the character itself. I already have the character created. Just come up with a way on how they join Michael's party. All ideas are welcome.**

**Also, I have some brief story-related business to discuss with you. A few weeks ago, I went back through the first few chapters to fix any mistakes that I found here or there. It was mostly fixing typos, rewording awkward sections, basic stuff. However, there is one section where I heavily revised the text. The section to which I am referring to is the aftermath of Jessica's original 'secret' after the battle with the Wight Knight. As many people had stated in their reviews, that section was horribly overdramatic, extremely overhyped, and overall just kind of unnecessary. However, as it and subsequent chapters have already been published for quite some time now, I couldn't just delete that section, as it was already part of the established canon of this story. Instead, I reworked it so that is wasn't the overdramatized disaster that it originally was. It overall accomplishes the same thing, but through a different method. So that you guys don't have to go back and find the section and reread it, I'll just briefly summarize how this scene works now:**

**Michael asks Jessica if Wind magic is her secret. Jessica, not wanting to reveal her true secret, decides that this is an adequate cover and chooses to go along with it. Michael thinks it's stupid that people would hate her for it, and she agrees, saying some people are stupid. Then they go back to Stornway and that's that. Also, Patty believes that the Wind magic actually is her secret, as Jessica absolutely refuses to tell anyone her true secret. In terms of character development, Jessica is no longer an oversensitive crybaby, but actually more of a street-smart sassy-pants, for lack of a better term.**

**Some other minor changes to note: Jessica now has long red hair instead of short, and Allison wears glasses and uses a staff as her weapon. I hate making massive changes like this in past chapters, but I just felt that this had to be done for the sake of the story. I hope everyone is okay with the changes that I made. I'll try not to do something like this again unless I mess up a scene really bad again.**

**Also, TWO YEARS!? That's amazing. I can't believe it has been this long already. I just want to thank everyone who has stayed with me and the story for such a long time. I know it wasn't always the smoothest of journeys, but we've made it nonetheless. Here's to another two years of the misadventures of Michael and friends.**

**Finally, something funny about the game that I realized while writing this chapter: At no point does anyone in the game actually refer to the next dungeon by its actual name. Only items, the map, and the Battle Records actually give it a name. I don't know. I thought this was kind of interesting.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this extra-long chapter. The second half of the chapter may be a little difficult to read, so I apologize in advance if you struggle with it. Below are the disclaimer and the reviews. Until next chapter, this is D~F. Now excuse me as I go into hiding for a while...**

**Disclaimer**

_**Dragon Quest IX **_**is property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.**

**What I do own are the characters that I make up, such as Michael, Jessica, and Allison and some of the crazy things that happens around them.**

**Reviews:**

**jsun25: Yes, he was a fairly difficult boss to beat the first time through. Actually, the fourth character I have would actually look kind of funny with a buzz cut. I don't think it would suit them, though.**

**WolfPack64: You're going to be so disappointed with the final character. Worry not for myself. I've kept college under control so far. Then again, finals are coming up, so... Also, I hope you're still here, because here's the next chapter. I hope you didn't have to wait too long for it.**

**Yurei Hanatsuki: The area you mention is actually, as I've planned it, at the beginning of Act 3, so you've slightly overshot the time frame.**

**Guest: Worry not. I am still very much alive. In fact, I'm better than I've been in a while. Thank you for your concern.**

* * *

_Act 1 – Part 9: From Bad to Worse_

(Allison's POV)

"Well, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

Jessica thought for brief moment before replying. "I want to hear the bad news first."

I sighed. "Well, you definitely have the Contagion."

Jessica rolled her tired eyes. "I thought we had already established that fact," she responded dryly.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure. You never know. It could have been something else."

Jessica slid down into her seat. She was clearly very worn down, which wasn't surprising, given everything that she had gone through last night. "Well, what's the good news then?"

"From what I was able to examine, it seems that you're only in an early stage of the Contagion, so there's no immediate threat of you falling into a chronic condition."

Jessica coughed before she was able to reply. "So, what you're saying is that I have a little while until I die?"

I stumbled a little when she said that. "W-what? I n-never said that…" I was silenced by an immense glare from Jessica. "…Yes. You are correct. I'm sorry."

Jessica just shook her head. "Sometimes, Allison, I just wish you were more direct with me. There's no point in trying to water down the truth for me."

"I-I'm just trying to-"

"Trying to what, Allison?" she interrupted. "Trying to protect me?" She sighed. "Look, I know you still want to be like a 'big sister' to me, and I appreciate that, but I'm not a child anymore. I haven't been for a while. I don't need to be shielded from the harshness of reality anymore. I…I just wish you would trust me more."

Her words left me without any. "B-but, Jessica… Of course I trust you. I-"

"Then why can't you ever just tell me what's actually happening around here, instead of constantly beating around the bush?" Jessica interjected, preventing me from completing my thought. "You tried to hide that my hometown was dying. You tried to hide that my parents had died. You just tried to hide the fact that I'm probably going to die!" She paused for a moment to take a deep breath. "I…I know what you're trying to do, and I get it, but it's just too much." She stopped again, this time to cough a few times. Once she had caught her breath, she had one last thing to add. "Last night, when the priestess said that you couldn't protect me forever, she was right."

I was speechless as Jessica climbed out of her chair and started shuffling towards the door to my room. As she opened the door, I suddenly remembered something important and I quickly stopped Jessica before she could leave. "Wait," I said. "I have to ask you something important." She just stared at me, waiting. "While we're on the topic of trust, I was wondering something: Do you trust Michael?"

Jessica tilted her head to the side and gave me a confused look. "What? Of course I trust Michael. Why wouldn't I trust him?"

I hesitated for a second, trying to figure out the safest way to respond. "Uh…Well…I don't know. There's just something about him that…bothers me. For example, I've seen him having a conversation with nobody. Do you have any idea about what I'm talking about?"

After staring at me for a few seconds with a puzzled look on her face, Jessica dropped her head and sighed. "I know what you're talking about, and it doesn't concern you, so don't worry about."

It took me a second to process what she just said. "Wait…How do you know that? Has he told you about it? Can you tell me what it is?"

Jessica sighed again. I could tell that she was starting to get irritated with me. "Yes, Allison, he has told me about it; and, no, I can't tell you what it is. Only he can, and only if he absolutely has to _and_ he trusts you. Now, can you please let go of my arm? You're starting to hurt it."

I quickly let go of her arm and watched as she left my room, slamming the door behind her. After a few seconds, I walked over to my bed and sat on it, covering my face with my hands. "Brilliant," I said to myself. "Good job, Allison. You did it again. Now even your best friend is annoyed with you." I sighed. "I knew this would happen. It always does. I always get too involved in people's business when I try to help them." I shook my head. "Someday, Allison, you'll learn to recognize when your opinion isn't wanted." I lifted my head up and watched the Sun slowly ascending through the sky. "I suppose I should get ready for the day. I wonder what's on my to-do list for today."

* * *

(Michael's POV)

I was nearly finished getting ready when Jessica marched into the room. She didn't appear to be in the best of moods, so I didn't say anything for fear of incurring more of her wrath upon myself. I still shudder in fear every time I remember Jessica's powerful right-hook from the Doomingale Forest.

When I looked back towards her, I saw that she actually looked more depressed than angry. I was contemplating on whether or not I should ask her what was wrong when she sighed loudly, signaling that she wanted to get something off of her chest.

"Allison has always been…difficult to work with."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Realizing that I was actually paying attention to her, she continued. "She…I don't know. It's hard to explain. Uh…Well…She loves helping others, and she never hesitates to offer her advice or support to others."

"Well, what's wrong with that?" I asked, confused.

"Well, her…help…isn't always wanted."

"Ah," I said. "So what you're saying is that she sticks her nose in other people's business when they don't want her to?"

"Exactly. Of course, she doesn't do it on purpose. She is the nicest person I know, and her intentions are always pure. Her brain…just doesn't have a filter and is a bit lacking in terms of self-control."

"I see," I responded. "Wait, she's nicer than me?"

Without even looking at me, she smirked as she asked, "How's your jaw feeling, Michael?"

I froze for a second as a shiver went through by body. I looked down at the ground as I felt her smile widen. I quickly looked back up when she started coughing heavily. "Are you okay, Jessica?" When I finished asking that, she literally stopped mid-cough, looked at me, and glared. "Sorry. I know. Stupid question." She just shook her head. "Anyway, what did Allison have to say about your condition?"

She sighed. "I'm not in any immediate danger of dying in the near future."

"Well, that's good, I suppose."

"Yeah…"

I didn't have anything to say in immediate response to that, so the conversation was kind of left hanging, leaving an uncomfortable period of silence in its place. Jessica began ruffling through her bag, counting how many supplies she had.

After a few minutes of tense silence, I finally decided to say something to break the suffocating awkwardness filling the room. "So, Allison is from Coffinwell, right?" I asked.

Jessica turned towards me a little, looking slightly relieved to be rid of the silence. "Yeah. She has lived here for most of her life."

"Then…Why does she stay at the inn? Doesn't she have a home here?"

Jessica seemed taken a little off-guard by my question. "Uh…Well…You see…" she stuttered, struggling to find a proper response. However, she seemed to quickly find one. "Actually, that isn't something that I should probably talk about without her permission. It's kind of personal."

I nodded my head in understanding. "That's fine. I was just curious, that's all."

"Yeah…" she responded, her mind seeming to be somewhere else.

Not wanting to fall into another tense silence, I quickly thought of something else to talk about. "So…Uh…How do you know Allison, anyway? We talked a little last night, but she didn't really tell me anything about herself."

"What?" she replied, her mind once again snapping back to the current situation. "Oh, right. Yeah. We were best friends as children." She started to smile as she thought about it. "We were practically inseparable. She was like an older sister to me."

I was surprised by how Jessica described Allison. "Really? You guys didn't seem like best friends last night."

Jessica sighed. "Yes, well, first of all, last night was far from a normal situation, wasn't it? Second, as we became older, we began to slowly drift apart. It wasn't a drastic amount of separation. We just grew up, and our priorities began to change. Of course, we were still best friends when she went off to study at Swinedimples Academy a few years ago. I had only seen her a few times after that though, and not since I had left to go adventuring."

"Oh," was I all said in response to that. I know that it sounded stupid, but I couldn't think of anything else to say.

Jessica stood up and threw her bag over her shoulder. "Anyway, speaking of adventuring, shouldn't we get going?"

I looked out the window to see how high the Sun had gotten already. "Oh, yeah, you're right! Let's go see if there's any way that we can help the people here."

"Lead the way," she said, holding the door open for me as I stepped through into the hallway.

* * *

(Jessica's POV)

When we reached the lobby at the front of the inn, I noticed Allison standing off to the side, appearing deep in thought (cough). "Hey, Allison," I called out, grabbing her attention.

"What? Oh, hi Jessica. Good morning Michael," she greeted. "I assume you two are off to do whatever it is that you guys were planning on doing today, right?"

I smiled. "Yes, we were. C'mon, let's go."

Allison's eyes widened in surprise and she struggled to respond coherently. "Wh-bu-wh-hu-what? You mean, like, I go _with_ you?"

I couldn't help but laugh at the woman's reaction. "Yeah, let's go. We've lost enough time as it is."

"Yeah, okay, but, no…" Allison continued to stammer. "But, I have to go around town and help take care of the people who are ill."

"What do you think we're going to do?" I countered. "Actually, we're going to try to help the Mayor and this Dr. Phlegming find a cure, which will probably help everyone out more in the long run than your house calls, myself included (cough). Besides, we'll probably need you and your knowledge of the Contagion to help find a cure anyway."

Allison considered what I had said for a few moments. "Well, your reasoning is sound; but, what does Michael think?"

I turned and looked at Michael, who was waiting patiently behind me. He shrugged. "Like she said, your reasoning is sound. I can't argue with that."

I looked back at Allison and smiled. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"

Allison smiled and let out a soft chuckle. "Alright, I'm coming. Where are we going first?"

"I don't know. Where should we go to start helping find a cure?"

Allison deadpanned. "You…don't know…where to go?"

I smiled sheepishly. "I did say we needed you…"

* * *

(Michael's POV)

According to Allison, if we wanted to help find a cure for the Contagion, talking to Mayor Laria should be the first thing we do. As such, the mayor's residence was where we headed to first this morning. As we stepped through the front doors, I could tell that Allison was still a little salty about earlier, but I figured it was a small enough of a thing that it'll resolve itself on its own. The sound of a cough coming from Jessica besides me reminded me that there were more important issues to take care of at the moment.

Once we were all inside, a maid who was dusting around the foyer noticed us. "Oh! Good morning," she greeted. "If you're here to see the master, you'll find him in the library upstairs," she said, gesturing towards a staircase off to the left. "This house has long been the most distinguished in Coffinwell, so there are many old manuscripts and the like," she continued. "That's what brought Dr. Phlegming to Coffinwell, in fact. He wanted to read through the manuscripts for his research. The master was happy to accommodate him at first, but then all that business with Miss Catarrhina happened and–" She stopped abruptly. "Oh dear! I really shouldn't be gossiping like this. Um, can we just pretend you didn't hear what I said before, please? I'd be in terrible trouble with the master if he found out I'd been discussing family affairs with a guest." She very quickly hurried away back to her cleaning duties.

We all just stood there for a second, completely caught off guard by the sudden one-sided conversation with the maid. I glanced over at Jessica and Allison and saw that they appeared to be as confused as I was. I cleared my throat to break the silence. "So…uh…the library's upstairs, right? I guess we should take the stairs then, huh?"

"Yeah…" they both responded in unison before following me up the stairs that the maid had gestured to earlier.

At the top of the stairs, we followed a short hallway into a room lined with bookshelves and a man whom I presumed was the mayor. As we approached him, it seemed that he was focused on trying to read some documents on the desk in front of him.

"So that's what it says!" he exclaimed as we reached his desk. "…Oh, it's no use. I don't understand a word of it. I'll have to rely on his help after all," he continued dejectedly. "I have no choice. I must do something before any more people suffer needlessly." He looked up from his papers and noticed that we were standing there. "Oh! I beg your pardon. I didn't realize I had a guest. I'm Mayor Laria. May I assist you with something?"

Allison stepped forward before I had a chance to speak. "Good morning, Mayor. How are you?"

The mayor turned towards Allison and recognized her immediately. "Oh! Hello, Allison. I didn't see you there. I'm as stressed and busy as I always have been since this stupid disease started tearing our town apart. Who are your companions?"

"This is Michael. He's a traveling minstrel who wants to aid in the search for a cure for the Contagion." Oh, yeah. I totally forgot that I was technically a minstrel in the view of the mortals. "And I suppose you already know who Jessica here is. She also wants to help end the disease."

The Mayor gained a solemn look on his face. "Ah, yes, Jessica. I'm terribly sorry about what happened to your parents. They truly were wonderful people. It's a shame that they had to go so soon."

"Thank you, sir," Jessica responded. I could tell that she was trying to hold back her tears again.

The mayor then turned to address the group as a whole. "Hmm. You're concerned about what's going on here in Coffinwell?" He paused for a moment to think. "Very well. I'll tell you all I know. I'm sure that you're already aware that Coffinwell has been hit by a contagious disease." Jessica suddenly sneezed, but she managed to cover it with her arm. The mayor raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything about it. "The fact is, the very same disease attacked the town a century ago. I started looking through the ancient manuscripts for a solution, but I'm afraid I barely understood a word. I won't be beaten, though! I passed them on to Phlegming in the hope that he might be able to make some sense of them. I imagine it won't be long before he turns something up, but I'm afraid I'm rather loath to go and ask him in person." Suddenly, he shot up in his chair as if he had just come up with a great idea. "Of course! You care about what's been going on here, don't you? In that case, perhaps you could pop along to Phlegming's place for me and see how he's getting on? His house is just to the west of my mansion. Sorry to trouble you, but I really would appreciate it if you paid him a visit."

"It's no trouble at all," I responded. "We'll go right away."

"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "Hopefully he'll have already found something useful. I'll be awaiting your return."

With a new task at hand, we left the mansion for Dr. Phlegming's house. As we walked down the sidewalk towards the nearby house, I noticed a few puffs of last night's fog floating around in the lower parts of the town. I began to shiver upon seeing them, although this time it wasn't because I was cold. I was starting to get the feeling that the fog was actually more ominous than it appeared, and I felt like I could begin to guess why.

Within a few minutes, we had finally arrived at a small house with a blue roof in the northwest corner of Coffinwell. I knocked on the door. When no one answered, I checked if the door was unlocked, which it was. I turned towards my companions. "Should we go in?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure," Jessica answered. Allison merely shrugged. She didn't look to happy about the idea, but she didn't say anything about it.

Opening the door, we carefully stepped inside and were immediately met with the sight of a young woman with green hair and an extremely-pink outfit lying on a bed. It appeared that she was the only one in the house and we needed to know where Dr. Phlegming was, so we cautiously walked towards her, not wanting to frighten her. Along the way, it suddenly crossed across my mind how what we were currently doing could appear from a different perspective, and I began to understand why Allison was looking fairly unhappy about our current actions.

At the side of the sleeping woman, I looked back at Jessica and Allison, asking them what they thought we should do now. Jessica just shrugged, and Allison wasn't even paying attention, as she kept nervously glancing at the door. Rolling my eyes, I turned back towards the bed. As I was about to say something to try to wake the woman, her eyes suddenly flew open and I jumped back in surprise as she quickly stood up and turned towards us. For some reason, I could hear someone start to hyperventilate behind me. I had a feeling it probably wasn't the woman who was ill.

"Oops!" the green-haired woman exclaimed. "Sorry, I must have dozed off. …I seem to be doing that an awful lot lately…" She looked over the three of us with a quizzical look before seeming coming to a conclusion of her own. "…Oh! Ahem, are you looking for Phlegmy, by any chance?" She quickly blushed. "Oops!" she exclaimed again. "I mean Dr. Phlegming, my husband." I barely had a chance to even begin nodding in confirmation before she interrupted me. "Eek! Husband! I feel all silly calling him that. Do excuse my waffling! I'm afraid Phlegmy's at work now in his laboratory."

"Oh," I said, finally able to get some words in. "Well, could you show us where his lab is? Mayor Laria sent us to check on his progress with the old manuscripts."

The woman seemed surprised by what I had said. "Really? Da- Um, the Mayor asked you to go and see him, did he?" I nodded. "Well, in that case, I'll go along with you and let you into the laboratory. Phlegmy's a bit shy around strangers, you see." She turned to leave, then quickly turned back. "Oops!" she exclaimed for a third time, seeming to realize something. "Where are my manners? I haven't introduced myself, have I? I'm Phlegmy's wife, Catarrhina."

Realizing that we haven't introduced ourselves, either, I quickly returned the gesture. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Catarrhina. I'm Michael, and this is Jessica and Allison."

Catarrhina's face lit up at the mention of their names. "Oh my Almighty! Is that really you Jessica? I haven't seen you in forever. You, too, Allison. Look how tall you've gotten!"

"Thanks," Jessica responded sheepishly.

"It hasn't been that long…" Allison added.

Catarrhina's face suddenly became more somber. "Oh, Jessica, I just remembered," she began. "I'm so sorry about what happened."

Jessica's face dropped and she looked towards the floor. "I-it's okay. I'm…fine."

Catarrhina gave Jessica a concerned look before turning back towards me. "I'll go on ahead," she said, turning and leaving the house. Allison followed soon after her. I glanced at Jessica to see if she was okay, but she seemed to be fine and was already following Allison out the door. Not wanting to be left behind, I quickly followed them.

After going down some more stairs and into an alley, we found Catarrhina facing a door covered in shadows. As we approached her from behind, we heard her talking to herself. "I can't believe Daddy would ask a stranger to visit Phlegmy. Does he really find him that hard to talk to? (cough cough)"

Allison tensed up a little when Catarrhina coughed. "Catarrhina, are you okay?" she asked.

Catarrhina jumped and turned around to face us. "Oh! You're here already. Yes, I'm perfectly fine," Catarrhina answered, smiling. "There's no need to worry, Allison." Turning back towards the door, she continued. "I'll get him to open up, then." Raising her hand, she knocked on the door in what was clearly a special pattern.

"Catarrhina? Is that you?" a voice called out from inside. "What are you doing here at this hour?"

"Sorry to disturb you, Phlegmy," Catarrhina apologized. "You have a visitor. Daddy's sent a messenger to find out how you're getting on with deciphering the old manuscripts."

"Hmph," was heard from the other side of the door. "Well, I suppose you'd better come in, then." The door to the lab opened inwards and Catarrhina walked inside. We quickly followed suit.

The inside of the lab was as anyone would expect. The walls were lined with bookcases, stacks of extra books sat in the corner, and balls of crumpled paper were strewn across the floor. A tall man with reddish-brown hair, white glasses, and chin stubble sat at a desk off to the side. Catarrhina stood behind him. He sighed. "I have a million and one things to do at the moment, but I suppose a messenger from Father-in-law takes precedence." He turned towards us and stood up. "So, what can I- Ah, that's right. You've come to find out how I'm getting on with those manuscripts, haven't you?"

"You're forgetting something, Phlegmy!" Catarrhina interjected. "You haven't introduced yourself yet."

The man grunted. "I don't see how that matters. Silly, time-consuming formality, in my opinion." Well, he's not entirely wrong, I thought to myself. "Oh, very well. Pleased to meet you. The name's Dr. Phlegming. I study archaeology and the like. And you are…?"

"I'm Michael," I responded. "And this is Jessica and Allison."

He raised an eyebrow at the mention of Allison's name. "Allison, you say?"

"Yes, sir," Allison responded.

"Hm…I suppose I should thank you, then."

Allison seemed confused. "What? Why?"

"You're the priestess who has been going around town to help control the Contagion, are you not?" he explained. Allison nodded. "Well, then, thanks to you, I've had more time to research the disease. I don't know how far I would have gotten in my studies if the Contagion had been left unchecked."

"Oh," Allison replied. "Well, then, I guess you're welcome."

Dr. Phlegming nodded, then continued. "And you're Jessica, and then you're Michael, yes?" Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Jessica seemed relieved that Dr. Phlegming didn't actually know her. "Well, I'll try to remember your names, but I can't guarantee I'll be successful. Anyway, never mind that. I think I've found a clue in the old manuscripts as to the nature of the illness that's been going around."

"Oh Phlegmy!" Catarrhina exclaimed. "I knew you could do it!"

"Around a hundred years ago, some old ruins were discovered to the west of town." As Dr. Phlegming was explaining, I noticed that Catarrhina was staring at her husband with what was perhaps the most love-filled look I had ever seen. It amazed me just how much love she seemed to have for him. And yet, he didn't seem to notice, as he kept on explaining what he had discovered. "The people who discovered them rather rashly decided that it would be a good idea to venture inside. Little did they know that terrible misfortune lay in wait in the form of a deadly contagion. It's this contagion that lies behind our current epidemic. According to the manuscripts, it's actually more accurate to refer to it as a curse than a disease. The townspeople were able to break the curse by sealing the contagion away in the ruins and blocking up the entrance."

"But for some reason the disease has managed to escape again?" Catarrhina asked.

The doctor turned towards his wife. "It's possible that the recent earthquake may have caused some damage to the seal that was keeping it contained." I was willing to bet that that was exactly what happened. After all, three out of the last three problems I had to deal with were directly related to the earthquake. Why should this one be any different?

"So all we have to do is go to the shrine and seal it away again?" Catarrhina inquired.

"Indeed," Dr. Phlegming answered. "Although it's not quite as simple as it sounds. I'm probably the only one who'd be able to do it, in fact."

"Ooh!" Catarrhina exclaimed, her eyes somehow filling with even more love than before. "So you're going to fix the seal and save us all, Phlegmy?"

"Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt. It might even encourage your father to finally think me worthy of you. It would also be a good opportunity for me to explore the ruins, so I'm certainly not averse to the idea. The only problem is that monster activity there is reportedly rather heavy, and I don't want to get hurt…"

Finally realizing that we weren't actually part of this conversation anymore, we decided to leave and head back to the mayor to report what we had found. As we were leaving, though, I heard Catarrhina cough a few times more before simply passing it off as something that caught in her throat from all of the excitement. I glanced at Allison, and I saw that we were both starting to have the same concern. However, we both decided against saying anything.

* * *

"Ah, I was wondering where you'd got to. So, what did you find out?" We were back in Mayor Laria's library to report to him what Dr. Phlegming had discovered.

"Well," I began, "it turns out that the Contagion is actually a curse that was sealed away a century ago in some ruins to the west."

"Dr. Phlegming believes that the recent earthquake may have damaged the seal, which would have let the curse escape," Jessica continued.

Allison finished the report. "However, he believes that he may be the only one able to repair the seal, trapping the curse away again. Unfortunately, he is unable to do so at the moment because the ruins are too dangerous for him to visit."

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm…" the mayor hummed, thinking over what we had just told him. "Goodness! The disease is being caused by some kind of contagious curse? And the way to contain it is to fix some kind of seal in the shrine to the west of town? And you say that Phlegming is the only one capable of this?"

The three of us looked at each other, then back at the mayor. "Yes," I answered. "That's pretty much exactly what we just said."

The mayor nodded in understanding. "Very well. The situation is clear to me now." He paused for a few seconds, thinking about something. "Hmm… Well, you three look like you can take care of yourselves fairly well. I don't suppose I could interest you in going along with Phlegming? Safety in numbers and all that. If he thinks that the shrine is hazardous, then I'm sure he'd appreciate a bodyguard. Naturally, I'd make it worth your while. What do you say?"

Before answering, I turned towards Jessica and Allison to see what their opinions on this was. Jessica seemed more than eager to go along. Allison seemed a little more hesitant, but she nodded in approval nonetheless. I turned back towards the mayor. "Yes, we'll do it."

"You'll do it?" the Mayor confirmed. "Excellent, excellent! Much obliged and all that. Well, we'd better not waste any time. Take this key to Phlegming, won't you?" The mayor handed me a large key with a small tag attached to it the read 'Quarantomb Key.'

"I'll bring it to him immediately," I answered, placing the key in my bag. As I let go of it, I heard a short yelp of pain from within. I realized that Stella was probably, for some odd reason, trying to rest in my bag. Seems I may have just accidentally awoken her.

"Good," the Mayor continued. "That's the key to the shrine to the west of town. You should be able to open it up with that. Good luck."

We thanked the mayor for his assistance, and turned to leave. However, as we were walking out, Stella flew out of bag and began to talk to me. Jessica, who was ahead of me, noticed this and kept walking with Allison so that she wouldn't suspect anything.

"Sealing away a deadly disease is the perfect way to help people!" she cried out excitedly. "Imagine how grateful they'll be if we succeed! We'll have barnloads of Benevolessence! You'll be a fully-fledged Celestrian again in the wink of an eye!"

"How do you know what we're doing?" I asked quietly, so that nobody would overhear me. "Weren't you sleeping this entire time?"

Stella scoffed. "Pfft. Of course not. I was simply hiding."

"From what?"

"This blasted Contagion, of course. I don't want to be exposed to it and end up like-"

"I'm going to stop you right there, Stella," I interrupted. "I don't know what you were about to say, but it probably was going to end up being insensitive and mean, and I'd rather not hear something like that right now."

Stella rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's just get going. That benevolessence isn't going to collect itself."

As I started down the stairs, I told her "You know, benevolessence isn't the only reason I'm doing this."

Stella looked at me confused. "What do you mean? What other reason would you have for going through all of this trouble and risking your life."

I shook my head. "Isn't it obvious? I'm doing it for Jessica and everyone else who has the disease. Yes, the benevolessence is a nice bonus, but it's my duty as a Celestrian to help those I am sworn to protect."

"And then collect their benevolessence and bring it to Yggdrasil," Stella finished. "Yes, I'm very well aware of your duties." She turned in midair and looked over towards the front door of the mansion, where Jessica was in the middle of a coughing fit and Allison was trying to help her recover. "But, yes, I see your point." She turned back towards me. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go save everyone's lives and then collect all of their benevolessence!" she exclaimed, pumping her arm through the air before disappearing back into my bag. Faeries are such strange creatures.

* * *

Back at Dr. Phlegming's lab, I pulled the key out of my bag and handed it to him. "Hm? What's the key you've got there?" he asked, taking it out of my hands.

"It's the key that opens the ruins to the west where you'll be going with us as your bodyguards."

The doctor looked up at us with an incredulous look on his face after I said that. "Really? Father-in-law has asked you to be my bodyguard?"

"Goodness!" Catarrhina chimed in. "He did that for you!?"

Dr. Phlegming sighed. "So he's managed to rope you into helping out, has he? Well, I suppose I have no choice, then. I'd better go, hadn't I? I don't want the old man to think I'm all mouth and no trousers."

"Um, I'm not sure it's quite like that, Phlegmy…"

Adjusting his glasses, the doctor continued. "There's no time to stand about discussing the whys and wherefores. I need to leave for the shrine right away. It's off to the west of town. I'm heading there now. Don't keep me waiting." And with that, he turned and walked out of his lab, presumably to the ruins off to the west.

As we were leaving, Catarrhina suddenly coughed again. We all turned to look at her. "(cough cough) Oh dear!" she exclaimed. "Excuse me. It's all the dust in here, it's making me cough." She smiled. "Phlegmy seemed rather het up. I do hope everything is okay. You will be sure to look after him, won't you? I'm begging you! (cough cough)"

"Yes, of course we'll take care of Dr. Phlegming. Don't you worry," I answered.

"And take care of yourself while we're gone, okay?" Allison added.

"I'll be fine," Catarrhina stated. "It's you guys I'm worried about. Now hurry up and go! I don't want my Phlegmy out by himself for too long. Especially with how late in the afternoon it's getting." We nodded and said our goodbyes before following the doctor out of the town.

* * *

(Allison's POV)

"So, I don't know if this is a good time to mention it or not, but I've never actually fought a monster before…"

Michael stopped right where he was and facepalmed. Jessica just laughed. "What are they teaching you at your fancy school?" she asked.

"I only took the classes on healing magic," I responded. "I never really felt the need to learn how to fight."

Jessica laughed again. "Well, here in the real world, everyone needs to know how to defend themselves against monsters, since they're everywhere." I was really starting to get annoyed with Jessica's sass. "Here, c'mon, I'll teach you really quickly," she offered.

"Alright," I said, interested to see what Jessica could teach me. "Show me how it's done."

"It's easy," she said. "Just take your staff and hit the monster with it as hard as possible."

I doubted is was that simple. "That's it?" I asked.

"Well…" Michael jumped in. "There's a bit more strategy involved than just hitting it as hard as possible. Sometimes you have to choose between attacking and blocking an attack with your shield."

"But I don't have a shield."

Michael sighed, but it was more like he was upset at himself for not realizing this fact sooner. "Hang on," he said. "I'm pretty sure I have an extra shield in my bag somewhere. Um…Let's see. Ah! Here we go." He pulled out a small leather shield out of his bag and tossed it over to me. It quickly attempted to put it one over my arm, and was eventually successful – with Jessica's help.

"Okay," I said, summarizing everything they've said so far. "So, I attack by hitting monsters with my staff and protect myself from their attacks with my shield. Is there anything else I should know?"

Jessica thought for a second before responding. "Well, you can also use your magic in battle. Since you specialize in healing magic, you can make it your job to make sure none of us gets too injured for too long."

"Oh, yeah. I did learn that part, actually."

Jessica smiled and Michael nodded. "That should be everything that you need to know," he said. "Is there anything else you that you want to know?"

"Um…Yeah, actually. When does a battle usually end?"

"Whoever dies first loses," was all he said in response.

"Wait, what?" I replied, although it seems that he didn't hear me.

"Maybe we should find a monster for you to practice on. Do you see any monsters nearby, Jessica?"

"No, really, that's okay. There really isn't any need for that…" Once again, it seemed that I was completely ignored.

Jessica scanned the surrounding area looking for monsters. Unfortunately, she found one. "Oh, look! There's a Leafy Larrikin over there by himself."

"Maybe we should just leave it al-"

"Hey, you! Stupid plant guy!" Jessica suddenly yelled out to the nearby monster, getting its attention. Gesturing towards me, she continued "This girl over here wants to fight you!"

"Jessica!" I hissed. "What are you doing!?"

She just looked at me and smiled innocently. "There you go, Allison. A monster for you to practice fighting with. You better get ready, though. He's already coming to fight you."

Sure enough, the spiky orange plant was charging right towards me with its devious grin on its face. Without thinking, I took my staff and swung it towards the Leafy Larrikin as hard as I could, landing a direct hit on its face. The monster was immediately thrown in the opposite direction, crashing into a nearby tree before exploding into purple dust. I turned back to face Michael and Jessica. "How'd I do?"

Michael said nothing, instead continuing to look at the distant tree with a slightly terrified look on his face. Jessica, on the other hand, was a bit more vocal. "That was amazing!" she exclaimed.

"R-really?" I asked.

"Totally," she responded. "You completely destroyed that monster. Who would have thought that you would be so strong?"

"Wow. I didn't know that I had it in me."

Michael finally seemed to come back to reality. "Yeah. I'm just glad that you're on our side. I would hate to be at the other end of your staff." Jessica snickered in response to that, and Michael slightly scowled. "Anyway, we've wasted enough time here. Dr. Phlegming is waiting for us. Let's go," he said, turning back towards the path to the west. Jessica and I followed right behind him.

* * *

(Jessica's POV)

After a long trek north through the valley in Western Coffinwell, we finally reached a stone structure built into the side of the mountain. The three of us stood outside, hesitant to enter such a supposedly accursed place (cough cough).

Michael turned to look at us. "Ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be," Allison responded. I nodded in agreement.

Michael took a deep breath. "Alright then. In we go," he said, heading towards the large wooden door at the front of the structure.

Just inside of the door stood Dr. Phlegming, who seemed to have gotten a little impatient waiting for us. "You took your time, um…Michael, was it?" he asked.

"Sorry," Michael apologized. "We got a little sidetracked by some monsters."

The doctor shook his head before continuing. "See here?" he explained, gesturing towards a broken wall at the back of the room. "It's just as I said. The shrine wall collapsed in the earthquake, and the entrance has been left wide open. It doesn't bode well for the seal that was supposed to be keeping the Contagion contained." He turned back towards us (cough). "We'd better head inside. Make sure you do what Father-in-law employed you for. I can't afford to get injured." And, with that cheerful note, Captain Encouragement turned around and walked through the hole in the wall deeper into the (cough) ruins.

We immediately followed after him and entered into a large network of crossing hallways. A cold, damp fog seemed to hang over everything in here. We barely took a few steps down the first hallway when (cough) I suddenly felt (cough) out of breath and began to stumble. Luckily, Allison caught me before I completely fell to the ground (cough).

"Jessica, are you okay!?" Michael cried out, surprised by my sudden near collapse.

(cough cough)

"This whole building is filled with the Contagion," Allison explained. "Being here has probably accelerated the progression of the disease inside of her. In fact, coming in here has probably resulted in all of us having the Contagion now."

(cough)

Michael looked around for a few seconds, evaluating the situation. "Hm… I suppose that means that we don't have very much time to waste here, does it?"

(cough)

"No, not at all," Allison confirmed.

"Well, then, we better hurry. Can you walk, Jessica?"

I slowly climbed back onto my feet. "Yeah, I (cough) think so."

"Okay, good," he replied. "Stay close to Allison," he ordered. "Allison, use your magic to ensure that Jessica doesn't get too much worse while we're in here, okay?"

"I will do everything that I can," Allison stated.

"Let's just hurry up and (cough cough) finish our task," I added. "The faster we seal away the curse, the better."

Michael nodded. "Alright. Let's go," he said, starting down the hallway once again. "We don't want to keep Dr. Phlegming waiting."

After a fairly short walk, we reached a point where our current hallway crossed with another (cough). We could see that our hallway quickly reached an end with what looked like a door that was half blue and (cough) half red, with a jewel of the matching color set into both halves. In the center of the intersection stood (cough) a large stone (cough) triangular pillar with mirrors on two of its sides. Dr. Phlegming wasn't anywhere to be seen (cough).

On the third side of the pillar, an inscription was etched into the stone. Michael walked up to it and read it out loud. "'When the sages reawaken, Comes crimson light and blue, Travel right, oh guiding light, And make the doors swing to.' Huh. What do you suppose that means?" he asked.

I (cough) didn't know what to think of the inscription. I noticed Allison kept switching between looking at the door, the (cough) mirrors, and down the hallways. "I think," she began, "that, maybe, somewhere at the end of these hallways, there is something that is supposed to be generating a red and blue light."

I began to understand what she was implying. "And maybe we're supposed to (cough) use the mirrors here to reflect the light into the jewels on the (cough) door," I added.

"Yeah, I think you guys are probably right," Michael concluded. "That's probably where Dr. Phlegming went – to go looking for the light sources. We should probably look for them, too."

"But which way should we go?" Allison asked.

"I don't know," Michael answered. "Let's try the left path first."

We followed Michael down the left path for a (cough cough) few minutes, our progress slowed by the fact that Allison had to half-carry me as we moved along. I felt bad, but there wasn't (cough) much that I could do. Eventually, we reached another intersection with a mirror at its center. Michael stared at this new mirror briefly, then back down the (cough) hallway that we had just come from.

"I think that if we follow the paths that these mirrors face," Michael suggested, "then we should eventually reach our target, whatever it may be."

"Sounds good to me," I responded. "Let's just get there (cough) quickly, wherever 'there' is."

A few more minutes (cough) of wandering down the (cough) dark hallways – changing directions when we reached a (cough) mirror – ultimately brought us to a (cough) statue of a sage with a glowing red wand. Michael carefully (cough) approached it to take a closer look at it.

"There seems to be a button on the wand here," he exclaimed.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Allison asked. "Push it already."

"I was going to," he responded, pushing the button.

Suddenly, a bright red beam of light shot out of the (cough) wand down the hallway. We followed the path (cough) of the light as fast as we could, and, as we (cough cough) expected, the light bounced off of all of the mirrors we (cough) passed and struck the red jewel on the (cough) door.

"Well," I began, "that (cough) seemed to work."

Michael agreed. "Yes, it did. Now we should head down the right path and see where that takes us."

After several more minutes (cough) of walking down different hallways, following (cough) mirrors, and occasionally crossing the red (cough cough) beam of light, we finally reached a second sage statue, this one (cough cough) glowing blue. Again, Michael pushed (cough cough) the button, and a blue beam of (cough cough) light shot out of its wand.

"Do you thi-" Allison began to ask before being interrupted by a deep rumbling noise off in the distance, followed by the beam of light going out.

"I suppose that answers your question," Michael answered. "At least, I hope so. Also, I hope the doctor is okay. We haven't seen him in a while."

"Maybe he (cough cough cough) heard the sound (cough cough) of the door opening and rushed (cough) over to investigate (cough)?" I offered.

Michael looked at me with concern. "Jessica, you seem to be getting worse. Are you sure you're alright to keep going?"

"I'm (cough) fine. I can (cough cough) keep going," I responded pathetically (cough).

"I think the power of the Contagion has actually gotten stronger while we've been in here," Allison stated. "We should hurry up and get out of here before- (cough)" Allison stopped suddenly, paling.

"Say no more," Michael said in response. "Let's just get back to the front of the ruins and deal with this whole thing as quickly as possible." Checking to (cough cough) make sure that both Allison and myself were (cough cough) both (cough) okay to travel, we quickly hurried to the front of the ruins to see (cough) what awaited us there.

Once we got (cough) there, we found Dr. Phlegming standing (cough cough cough) just inside of the room (cough) that we must have just opened. He was looking (cough cough) over what appeared to be (cough cough) a broken jar sitting on a pedestal in the center.

"Fascinating!" he (cough) exclaimed. "It's just as the manuscripts described. The jar over there must be where the contagion was sealed away." He walked (cough cough) closer to it to inspect it further. "And just as I feared, it was damaged in the earthquake." He walked (cough cough cough) even closer. "Ah, we're in luck! The section with the seal drawn on it is still intact. Patching this up should be a piece of cake for a top archaeologist like myself." He carefully knelt down on (cough cough cough cough) the ground and began (cough) working with the broken (cough) pieces. "I just need to get all of the pieces together…" He (cough) walked (cough) around (cough) to (cough) the (cough) side (cough) of (cough) the (cough) pedestal. "And then take my special glue…"

I stopped (cough cough) paying (cough) attention at this (cough cough) point as it (cough) took almost all of my energy (cough cough cough) just to keep (cough) breathing at this (cough cough) point.

Suddenly (cough), there was a flash (cough) of dark (cough cough) lightning as all of the (cough cough cough cough) fog in the nearby area came (cough cough) together to create a (cough) horrifying pink gaseous (cough cough cough cough cough) with three eyes (cough) floating around its (cough cough) body. As it (cough cough cough) opened its mouth to speak, green (cough) mist started pouring out of its mouth (cough cough), causing me to (cough cough) immediately feel faint. I (cough) could feel Allison starting to (cough cough) use her healing magic on me (cough), but it (cough) was barely helping (cough cough cough).

"Are you no-good, nose-pokin' buckaroos here to try and cram me back in that teeny-tiny little ol' pot?" the hideous (cough) creature asked, filling (cough cough) the room with a toxic (cough) gas. "Well I ain't gonna let y'all, y'hear? Uh-uh, no siree! The Ragin' Contagion's gonna keep a-ragin'! Ragin', ragin', ragin'!"

The doctor (cough) stepped back in (cough cough) disgust. "S-so this is the contagion that's been troubling the town? Drat! I haven't finished f-fixing the jar yet." He (cough cough cough) turned towards (cough) us. "Don't just stand there, Michael! If you don't do your job and fight that abomination, I can't do mine! I need more time! Go on, keep it occupied while I get this jar back together!"

The Ragin' Contagion (cough cough) turned to face us. "Sakes alive, ya pesky critters! I'm gonna have to send yer sorry hides to the bone orchard once and for all! Y'all don't seem to be dyin' fast 'nough as it is! It looks like I'm gonna have to deal with y'all myself!"

Roaring, the Ragin' Contagion (cough cough) flew right us. Michael quickly (cough cough) leapt at it, swinging his sword (cough cough) right at the hideous creature. However, his sword (cough cough) passed right through its body (cough cough cough), not leaving a single mark.

With the Ragin' Contagion (cough cough) still flying straight toward Allison and (cough cough) myself, Allison swung at the thing with her (cough) staff, luckily hitting one of (cough cough) its eyes. This managed to (cough) stop it dead in its (cough cough) tracks as it screamed in pain while (cough) grasping its eye with its hand.

Taking advantage of the (cough) easy shot, I quickly cast (cough cough) Frizz, sending a fireball directly into its (cough) face. This time, the Ragin' Contagion screamed in utter (cough cough cough) agony. I could see that (cough) part of its (cough) body had evaporated away where the (cough cough cough) fireball had hit it. However, it quickly reformed as (cough) more fog blew in (cough cough) to reform the (cough) wound.

"It must be weak to fire!" Allison realized. "Jessica, keep doing that as much as possible!" I (cough) nodded.

Fully reformed (cough), the Ragin' Contagion stared at me with pure (cough cough) hatred. I (cough) braced myself for its attack, but it didn't (cough) get a chance has Michael suddenly (cough cough) leapt at it from the side and sliced one of his (cough) eyes with his sword. Screaming in (cough) pain again, the Ragin' Contagion turned its focus back onto (cough) Michael. While it was (cough cough) distracted, Allison continued to use her (cough) magic on me as I sent (cough cough) two more fireballs at the monster.

Fully reformed once (cough) again, the Ragin' Contagion seemed beyond (cough cough) pissed at this point. Holding all three of its (cough) eyes high out of reach, it roared in my direction, releasing a (cough cough cough) massive cloud of gas which quickly enveloped me. I (cough cough cough cough) immediately collapsed onto (cough cough) ground, my lungs burning in (cough cough cough cough cough cough cough) pain. I (cough cough) could (cough cough) hear (cough cough cough) someone (cough cough) scream (cough) out my name (cough cough) in the distance as (cough) things started to fade to (cough cough) black.

Before everything (cough cough cough) disappeared, however, I saw a (cough cough) sudden flash of (cough) yellow light which was followed by an immense blast of fresh air. I managed to stand back up, apparently fully reenergized by the air flowing around me. Without knowing why, I immediately began launching a massive barrage of fireballs at the Ragin' Contagion. Absolutely soul-piercing shrieks could be heard from within the resultant blast, but I kept firing as many balls of flame as I could. The blast was so powerful, Michael and Allison both had step back to avoid being caught in it.

However, the fresh air quickly dissipated, and I began to (cough) feel weak again. Again, without (cough) thinking, I sent one last fireball towards (cough) Michael. "Catch!" I yelled at him (cough cough), hoping he'd know what to do with it.

As the (cough) dust cleared, I saw, much to my (cough cough) dismay, that the Ragin' Contagion, reduced to (cough cough cough) nothing but his three eyes, quickly (cough cough) reformed again, his three eyes glaring at me the (cough) entire time.

"You little bitch!" it screamed (cough cough) at me. "I was gonna let ya die a slow, painful death, but I think I'm just gonna end ya now! I hope yer ready to see yer parents again, yes siree!"

I was horrified by (cough) what it had said, but I pushed (cough) it out of mind (cough) and quickly (cough cough) raised my shield over my (cough) face, anticipating another toxic (cough) blast. However, it never (cough) came. I looked over my shield and (cough) saw that the Ragin' Contagion had (cough cough) disappeared. I looked around the (cough cough cough) room, trying to find (cough cough) it.

"Jessica, behind you!" Allison suddenly (cough cough cough) screamed.

I quickly spun around (cough cough cough cough) and found myself face-to-face (cough cough) with the Ragin' Contagion. Before I had a chance to even (cough cough cough) react, it opened its maw and released an incredible cloud of toxic gas (cough cough cough cough), then proceeded to surround me with its own body (cough cough cough cough cough), destroying any clean air left…around…me…

Suddenly…everything became…calm…

Time…seemed to…slow…

I…could…no longer…hear…the screams…the cries…the fighting…

I…wasn't coughing…anymore…

My lungs…had…stopped…working…

I…felt myself…hitting…the floor…

I…could see…Allison's tears…the Contagion's glee…Phlegming's determination…Michael over the contagion…rage on his face…sword glowing red…

And then…I saw…darkness…


End file.
